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Total Access Communication System (TACS) was an analogue cellular (1G) telephone system. It was a variant of the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), developed by the British state with partners and deployed throughout the United Kingdom from 1985. The system operated domestically in the 900 MHz UHF radio spectrum band.

An upgraded variant named Extended Total Access Communication System (ETACS) was deployed in 1989 which opened up more spectrum to increase capacity and reduce network overcrowding in busy areas.^[1] Outside of Britain the TACS system was also used at one point in other countries including Austria, Hong Kong,^[2] Italy, Ireland and Spain, as well as in Japan under the name Japanese Total Access Communication (JTAC).^[3][4] TACS was made obsolete by 2G systems like GSM and has been shut down worldwide.

It was announced as the choice for the first two British national cellular systems in February 1983, less than a year after the UK government announced the T&Cs for the two competing mobile phone networks in June 1982.^[5] Vodafone (known then as Racal-Vodafone) opted for a £30 million turnkey contract^[6] from Ericsson (ERA) to design, build and set up its initial network of 100 base station sites.^[7]

Cellnet (then known Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio Ltd) used development labs in the facilities at General Electric (later made part of Motorola) based at Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. The reason Cellnet used the General Electric labs was because the AMPS system was already in development there, and the company had set up a production facility in readiness for AMPS production in 1985 which the Cellnet TACS was to share.^{[citation needed]} In March 1984 development of prototypes began at General Electric. Production began in 1985 and General Electric produced 20,000 systems that year for Cellnet's distribution in the UK. Production of what was to become the Motorola model were then made at Stotfold, Bedfordshire, England. This production facility continued making TACS until the advent of GSM.^{[citation needed]}

TACS and ETACS are now obsolete in Europe, having been replaced by the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) system. In the United Kingdom, the last ETACS service operated by Vodafone was discontinued on 31 May 2001, after 16 years of service. The competing service in the UK operated by Cellnet (latterly BT Cellnet) was closed on Sunday 1 October 2000.^{[citation needed]} In Italy, the ETACS service remained live as far as 2005.^[8]

Eircell (now Vodafone Ireland) closed its TACS network on 26 January 2001.^{[citation needed]} This followed a long period during which customers were encouraged to switch to GSM services. When the network was closed, there were very few, if any, active TACS customers left. Customers who switched network were able to keep their phone number, but the (088) prefix was changed to either 087 (Eircell, now Vodafone Ireland) GSM or 086 (Esat Digifone, which became O2 Ireland before merging with Three) GSM. At the time, full mobile number portability was not available to TACS customers and the (088) prefix was closed. An automatic voice message was left in place for 12 months advising callers of the customer's new prefix.^{[citation needed]}

TACS BAND Summary

ESNs were issued in batches of 65535 by BABT for phone manufacturers to program into each cellular phone to make each one unique to the TACS network with which it attempted to register.

The following countries had more than two batches of ESNs allocated to them: UK, Italy, Austria, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Australia.

Country	Operator(s)	ƒ (MHz)	Launch date	End of service	Notes
United Kingdom Jersey	Vodafone Cellnet Jersey Telecom		Jan 1985 Jan 1985 1987	May 2001[9] Oct 2000 1999	[10]
Ireland	Eircell		Dec 1985	Jan 2001	[10]
Hong Kong	CSL Mobile Hutchison Telecom		1987	May 1996[11]	[12][13]
China	China Mobile		Nov 1987[14]	Dec 2001[15][16]	[17]
Macau	CTM		Nov 1988[18]	Feb 2001[19]	[20]
Sri Lanka	Celltel		1989	2006[21]	[20]
Japan	DDI		Jul 1989[22]	Sep 2000[23]	[20]
Malaysia	Celcom		1989		Named ART-900.[24][20]
Mauritania			1989		[20]
United Arab Emirates			1989		[20]
Ghana					[25]
Bahrain					[25]
Kuwait					[25]
Italy	TIM [en; it]		Apr 1990	Dec 2005[26][8]	[10]
Spain	MoviLine [es]		Apr 1990	Dec 2003[27]	Named TMA-900.[10]
Austria	Mobilkom		Jul 1990	Feb 2002[28]	[25]
Malta					[25]
Nigeria			1991		[25]
Singapore			1991		[25]
Kenya			1992		[25]
Mauritius					[25]