There were some really tiny TACS/ETACS phones around just before they pulled the plug on the Eircell "088" network. I remember one Sony phone that was approaching credit card size !

The early GSM phones were quite clumpy in comparison and were a lot pricier. Initially you were paying for "digital" (even though it gave worse reception in the early days) and for the ability to roam in Europe. I still remember a lot of "ping-pong" noises during calls back in about 1993/4 [Linked Image]

Eircell continued to market ETACS products at non-business users for quite a few years after GSM launched. Including the first Prepaid system "ready to go" which was an exclusively analogue product for the first year.

Then they started to push ppl over to GSM rapidly. When Digifone, the second GSM network (now O2) launched they tried to peer-pressure ETACS customers into switching over.. If you had an (088) number (ETACS) you were suddenly unfashionable and associated with stone age technology and prob. used a brick phone [Linked Image]