Alcatel 9109 HA

Alcatel 9109 HA is the first GSM mobile phone ever made in France. The Alcatel 9109 HA was made in limited production in 1991, but its commercial debut arrived only in 1992. It was discontinued in the early months of 1995. The 9109 HA was the first GSM cellular telephone ever made by the French company Alcatel. The phone was introduced to the press at the 1991 CeBit and was put in a limited production for test purposes, although the real commercial debut the of the 9109 HA was in 1992, when the first units began to be distributed in electronics shops. A large amount of 9109 HA were exported to Russia, that in 1993 was beginning to adopt the GSM service, replacing the old NMT lines, and the 9109 HA would become very famous there due to the fact that was the first GSM mobile phone available in that country. The phone itself was entirely made in France, in the Alcatel assembly plant of Laval, and it featured many exclusive patents. Technically, the 9109 HA was inspired by the analogue Motorola Microtac 9800x, except it didn't have a LED display, replaced by a two rows dot-matrix LCD one, and it didn't have the active flip, since it was patented by Motorola. Like the 9800x, the 9109 featured the microphone integrated into the flip rather than in the telephone body, and a water-resistant chiclet keypad. A particular aspect of this phone was that the SIM card was inserted into the flip, rather than the cellphone body, and the charging connector was put on the battery. But despite the similarities with the more popular Microtac, the Alcatel 9109 HA didn't have the expected success. Yes, it was the first GSM flip phone, but it was bulky, the menu was awkward and difficult to use and the non-retractable antenna was a huge drawback for the people who wanted to keep their cellphone into their pocket, and indeed, the 9109 HA turned out to be an economical failure, since the company lost millions of Francs on every phone they made. Not even the decision to sell it in bundle with a one-year SFR contract improved the poor sales of the handset, and it was silently discontinued in the early months of 1995, replaced by the more modern HB series, which was technically based on the previous 9109 HA, but it featured many improvements and a more compact size. Unfortunately, in order to use this phone, a Mini-SIM card with a large chip is required. (5V) Some modern SIMs with small chips will not work.