Following the abolition of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, Eircell fell under the remit of Telecom Éireann (Later Eircom), which today is known as Eir.

[2] In the late 1980s, early adopters of the service numbered in their hundreds rather than thousands and paid handsomely for the phones that were available at the time through a network of independent retailers.

In response to negative publicity about security compromises on the TACS system during the early 1990s, Eircell introduced Ireland's first encrypted cellular phone called a Kokusai and it retailed in the region of IR£1400.

Sales were poor partly because Eircell was not in the business of selling phones and because switching from encrypted to unencrypted was 'messy'.

A year later, it launched its GSM 900 version (access code 087) which quickly took hold as users rapidly switched over to the new digital technology.