BellSouth Mobile Data Inc and France Telecom Mobiles International SA’s RAM Mobile Data Belgium SCS joint venture has contracted to deploy a mobile data transmission network in Belgium. France Telecom says the company was the first private company to obtain a licence from the Ministry of Communications in Brussels to provide mobile data service in Belgium. The company will invest between $50m and $60m to deploy and operate the network, which uses the Mobitex technology from L M Ericsson Telefon AB and which will enable itinerant users to send and receive data from a radio modem-equipped portable computer. It will be marketed sometime in the first half of 1995. RAM Mobile Data employs 60 people and plans to develop partnerships with system integrators, software developers and terminal manufacturers in order to provide systems to meet market demand, France Telecom said. BellSouth and France Telecom already have established mobile data ventures that are operating – there’s Mobipac in France, RAM Mobile UK in the UK, and RAM Mobile Nederland in Holland.
