Cleartone
CTN7000

The Cleartone CTN 7000 became available to Peoples Phone customers in 1993 for use on analogue ETACS networks in the UK. Its distinctive colour variants certainly stood out from the crowd. The phone was also available in bright green, yellow and pink in addition to a more conservative black variant. The phone retailed at £99 ($135) when purchased with a Peoples Phone contract. It was a basic feature phone and regarded as somewhat heavy and clumsy compared to other models of the period. The Peoples Phone company was formed in 1988 and became the UK's largest independent mobile service provider. Its business model involved buying up large volumes of airtime from the UK’s mobile network operators (Cellnet and Vodafone) re-selling this to its own customers. Peoples Phone pioneered a call quota system allowing customers to limit their call charges each month. When the monthly limit was reached outgoing calls were blocked until the next monthly billing period began. During this time incoming calls could still be received. Customers could extend their call quota for an extra fee if required. On 19 November 1996 Vodafone bought Peoples Phone for £77m ($105m). This was against competition from Cellnet and Orange however, 94 percent of Peoples Phone customers were already using the Vodafone network. Information courtesy of Nigel Linge & Andy Sutton, the authors of 30 Years of Mobile Phones in the UK (Paid Link)