Motorola 8000X and 8000S Cellular Telephones

The Motorola 8000X and 8000s portable cellular telephones

Back in 1984 there was a revolution coming – it was soon going  to be possible to make calls and receive calls away from the office. The Motorola 8000X was coming.

At this time Motorola was a well known manufacturer of mobile communications systems and walkie-talkies, such as the HT220 and MX300 series. They were about to apply the technology to an emerging market – cellular telephones.

In 1984 if you were in London and the home counties and you wanted a phone in your car you typically had a 4 year wait to get allocated a number.

At the time I worked in a Motorola Service Station and got to see the first prototype 8000X. This unit was a modified version of the US Dyna-Tac 8000X. In the UK it would be using different frequencies and would work on the TACS network. There was a very limited test network in central London and in Basingstoke (where Motorola were based).

You could tell this was going to change the whole way of communicating. It would be possible to walk down the street and receive and make calls directly. Most business users generally had pagers which would “bleep” to tell you to contact the call centre and then have your message relayed to you. You had to find a phonebox or borrow the use of a landline phone from your customer – not very convenient.

The 8000X prototype

Going back to the prototype unit. This was a modified version of the US Dyna-Tac unit. The UK used different frequencies and channel spacing which meant the US version was not going to be compatible. This prototype unit was only used for testing purposes and to show how the unit may appear when launched.

1985 – Cellnet and Vodafone cellular networks launch in the UK

In the 80’s the UK government awarded licences to 2 mobile phone companies – Cellnet and Vodafone. Vodafone’s network began operating on the 1st Jan 1985, followed by Cellnet on the 9th Jan 1985. In 1984 I was busily installing the transmitters for Cellnet in London and the home counties to make ready for their new network launch.

The countdown began to the launch of the 8000X.

What could you use on Vodafone and Cellnet when the UK networks launched ?

Back in Jan 1985 your choice was either a carphone (Motorola 6000 or 6000X) or a transportable (Racal VT1). The handportable had not yet arrived.

As the year progressed more carphones appeared from NEC and Racal / Mobira (eventually became Nokia).

The race was on for the first commercailly launched handportable.

The contenders

Essentially, 3 companies were rushing to be the first to launch their own handportable mobile phone:

• Motorola
• NEC
• Technophone

They would be followed by Mobira (Nokia)

The first truly portable mobile phone – the Motorola 8000X – was launched in July 1985 at a massive price of £ 3000.00. It would be some time before it was more affordable, which is where the 8000S comes in..