Motorola Startac 70

[Commuter23]

Can i use this cellphone on the network. This uses the whole simcard, the card and the cutout which slides into the phone from the bottom. It does use the GSM standard. Will the contacts line up properly, and is this available from the o2 store or mail order?

Thank you

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:
I have 3 startac’s in my collection, a 70, 75 and 110.
They all still work on their respective networks but it isn’t possible to unlock them for any network use.
You need one of the old credit card size SIM card adapters rather than a full sized credit card sim and you need to tape your mini sim into the cut out.
They are very basic though compared to even the cheapest modern phones, esp the 70 which did not have sms facility or caller ID etc.
Great little retro phone though and still look fantastic and get admiring glances when used in public, either that or they think “what a berk” lol

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They also said it couldn't be unlocked on the Voda forum (I checked last night) @MI5

I would suspect admiring glances are only from those who recognise what it is..

Particularly if it came in this colour range

Look at that aerial.....

[madasaf1sh]

They only ever made startac 70 for o2 / voda for the 900mhz  band so it wont work on any EE network, as it would need to be 1800mhz variant 🙂 

[Anonymous]

The Motorola StarTAC ''clamshell" or "Flip" cellular phone, named for the TAC number - the Type Allocation Code or the first 8 digits of the imie, and the Star Trek Communicator - "To be or not to beam me up Scotty" Leonard Nimoy - Shakespearean Actor.

It was in a direct line from the first handheld 'brick'( as opposed to portable)  cellular phone the Motorola DynaTAC famously carried by Del Boy Trotter and many others. Followed by the Motorola MicroTAC a partial flip, which was in its later incarnations one of the first digital GSM phones, and the first to carry decorative features, like the antenna which wasn't attached to anything inside, and the flip which again in the later models just covered the keypad.

The MicroTAC was a Hollywood favourite and appeared long after it had been retired in the real world, for example on Fraiser, as it was big enough to easily to identify as a phone from a distance, but small enough to fit in the actor's jacket pockets.

The MicroTac and StarTac both had Jaguar (Car) variants which are the most valuable these days if they have the Jaguar Logo, as Jaguar built cradles into the car to fit the models. Tho again purely cosmetic the generic model would fit the cradle too. Which is why you find  vintage Jaguar enthusiasts all over StarTAC auctions.

The StarTAC sold into the Six Millions worldwide and was relaunched frequently on the dead horse flogging principle, in its own righf, and which culminated in the development of the  Motorola RAZR flip - the pink (metallic cerise) version of which was the amongst the first ''must have" handset to fly out of the stores based on a cosmetic feature alone.

The StarTAC is certainly a design icon, regularly in top best gadget lists, and the first handset that can be legitimately described as beautiful.