Olivetti
OCT 305

The Olivetti OCT 305 was launched into the Italian market around April 1990. It was a hand-portable 900MHz TACS phone based on the Technophone 305. This phone was donated by Andrew Bud who moved to Italy to help establish a new mobile communications business for Olivetti working for R&D Director Dr Hermann Hauser (who is most famous for setting up Acorn Computers which was taken over by Olivetti) and supported by the Vice Chairman, Elserino Piol. At the time, Olivetti was one of the world's largest IT companies, second only to IBM in its production of personal computers. It was an unusual IT business, having built its success on typewriters and calculators, but also offered the world's first desk-top computer, in addition to a line of designer office furniture. Having been successful in all these areas, Olivetti realised that it needed to move into mobile communications. In 1989, with the 1990 World Cup looming in Italy, there was a great opportunity for Olivetti to offer mobile phones for use on the new mobile network being launched in Italy in April 1990 branded as SIP (part of the Italian government-owned domestic telephone monopoly). Given Olivetti’s strong distribution network of office equipment retailers it was well positioned to be the ideal channel to market. However, it was still unclear whether the network would use 1G analogue TACS or NMT900 technology making it hard to source mobile phones. Eventually TACS was selected. Having spoken to several companies, including Nokia, Andrew Bud visited Technophone CEO Nils Martensson in his offices in Basingstoke, UK where he found “an outstandingly modern, leading-edge production facility, staffed with bright, talented engineers and commercial people that was light-years ahead of anywhere else.” He realised he had found the handset partner he needed. Olivetti secured an exclusive deal with Technophone to supply phones to Olivetti for the Italian market. When the SIP-branded TACS 900MHz network opened as planned in April 1990, Olivetti triumphed with its sleek OCT 300 phone (from Technophone) while other phone makers sold their outdated car phones and briefcase phones. Olivetti supported the phone with dense distribution and stylish, intensive marketing (see picture below). Bud recalls that the company captured between 30 to 50 percent of the Italian handheld mobile phone market overnight and that Olivetti netted about 70bn Italian Lira in less than two years during which time he estimates the company sold approximately 200,000 units.  Within 4 years, there were 1.2m subscribers on the SIP network (which eventually became Telecom Italia Mobile (aka TIM). The Olivetti OCT 305 had become a legendary phone and also a key volume driver for Technophone, which went on to be acquired by Nokia.