page_title: Motorola MicroTAC
section_title: CipherTAC
hierarchical_section_title: Motorola MicroTAC / Model history / CipherTAC
caption_attribution_description: English: Exhibit in the National Cryptologic Museum, Fort Meade, Maryland, USA. All items in this museum are unclassified; items created by the United States Government are not subject to copyright restrictions.
context_page_description: The Motorola MicroTAC was a cellular phone first manufactured as an analog version in 1989. GSM-compatible and TDMA/Dual-Mode versions were introduced in 1994. The MicroTAC introduced an innovative new "flip" design, where the "mouthpiece" folded over the keypad, although on later production the "mouthpiece" was actually located in the base of the phone, along with the ringer. This set the standard and became the model for modern flip phones today. Its predecessor was the much larger Motorola DynaTAC and it was succeeded by the Motorola StarTAC in 1996. "TAC" was an abbreviation of "Total Area Coverage" in all three models.
context_section_description: The CipherTAC was a spin-off of the MicroTAC series, running on the CDMA network. It offered unrecoverable, encrypted communication and was purpose-built in 1998 for the Secretary of State (then Madeleine Albright) and other officials. It was not made available for mainstream use. The fate of these units is currently unknown; presumably most of them would have been destroyed for security reasons but at least one example survives as a museum exhibit.
  Design-wise, the CipherTAC took after the Elite VIP.
caption: A CipherTAC.
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