Orbitel
902

The 902 Pocket Phone was Orbitel's first handheld GSM phone. It was the follow-up to its first GSM phone, the transportable Orbitel 901,  a key phone in GSM history. The 902 was announced at the Comex 1993 conference and exhibition in London, UK and featured a four line monochrome display. It was notable for being one of the first handheld mobile phones capable of receiving SMS text messages, however it was not able to send them. Orbitel Mobile Communications was established in 1987 in Basingstoke, UK, as a joint venture between Plessey Corporation and Racal Telecommunications with each owning a 50% share however, Racal eventually bought out Plessey to fully own the company. Orbitel was setup to manufacture and supply analogue mobile phones to Vodafone (also owned by Racal). However, they became heavily involved in research and development of GSM in their own right leading to the launch of an independent range of GSM mobiles. In 1991 Racal Telecommunications announced that L M Ericsson was acquiring a 50% share in Orbitel for £45 million. Ericsson subsequently took over the entire company in 1996 resulting in Orbitel becoming Ericsson Mobile Platforms. Some information courtesy of Nigel Linge & Andy Sutton, the authors of 30 Years of Mobile Phones in the UK (Paid Link)