0NEC
9A (TACS)
Announced
September 1987
Features
The NEC 9A (NEC TR5E 1000-9A) was launched in the UK in 1987 where it was well received, rapidly becoming the fastest-selling mobile phone at the time because it was lighter and offered more functions than its rivals.
In addition to the standard telephone functions, the NEC 9A included an address book that could record up to 60 telephone numbers and associated names. Its 3-line, 30-character LCD display had backlight illumination, as did the keypad. A built-in loudspeaker enabled hands-free operation. The NEC 9A could be fitted with either a quarter or half wave-length antenna and included a five bar signal strength indicator with the recommendation that you should have at least three bars showing before making a call. There were also two variants of the 9A - one that supported the TACS standard and a black variant that supported the ETACS standard - the NEC TR5E 1320-9A. The phone was turned on and off using a slider switch on the back of the device and a standard 12 key keypad was supplemented with 6 additional keys, SND used to initiate a call, FCN to enable access to the telephone's features, END to terminate a call, STO to store a number in the address book, RCL to recall a number from the address book and CLR to clear the contents of the display. A little-known claim to fame for the 9A was that the software issue caused an outage on the Cellnet network and the devices had to be recalled and reprogrammed as a result. Some information courtesy of Nigel Linge & Andy Sutton, the authors of 30 Years of Mobile Phones in the UK.
In addition to the standard telephone functions, the NEC 9A included an address book that could record up to 60 telephone numbers and associated names. Its 3-line, 30-character LCD display had backlight illumination, as did the keypad. A built-in loudspeaker enabled hands-free operation. The NEC 9A could be fitted with either a quarter or half wave-length antenna and included a five bar signal strength indicator with the recommendation that you should have at least three bars showing before making a call. There were also two variants of the 9A - one that supported the TACS standard and a black variant that supported the ETACS standard - the NEC TR5E 1320-9A. The phone was turned on and off using a slider switch on the back of the device and a standard 12 key keypad was supplemented with 6 additional keys, SND used to initiate a call, FCN to enable access to the telephone's features, END to terminate a call, STO to store a number in the address book, RCL to recall a number from the address book and CLR to clear the contents of the display. A little-known claim to fame for the 9A was that the software issue caused an outage on the Cellnet network and the devices had to be recalled and reprogrammed as a result. Some information courtesy of Nigel Linge & Andy Sutton, the authors of 30 Years of Mobile Phones in the UK.
