On the day that the last of the 11 Telepoint licence applicants puts forward its case to the Department of Trade & Industry, the joint venture company formed by the Plessey Co Plc and Kingston Communications (Hull) Plc, PTSL, has given details of the Kingline Telepoint service that constituted its own application. It has pledged a capital investment of UKP100m, installation of 100 System X switching points, 30,000 base stations and 100,000 RF channels by 1994, when it envisages two million people using Telepoint. PTSL claims it will be able to have base stations installed in London, West Yorkshire and Edinburgh by June 1989, and all major UK cities within two years; site acquisitions for base-stations have begun, and the company claims to have a commitment from manufacturers to support its ambitious geographical roll-out strategy. Users of PTSL’s Telepoint system will pay a UKP10 registration fee, and a similar quarterly subscription charge – call rates will be in the region of those currently in operation for public payphones. Commercial groups will be initial targets as fewer base-stations are needed to cover business districts; managing director David Crofts forecasts that domestic markets will become a major business segment between 1992 and 1995. Included in its service, PTSL offers itemised billing of calls, the opportunity to rent, lease or buy a handset, charges on a per second basis, call barring, and a service that allows users to call selected destinations by dialling only one digit. However, unlike Ferranti Creditphone (CI No 1,062), the company concedes that its handsets will probably have to be scrapped, and basestations fundamentaly changed, when the Common Air Interface is introduced. If the company’s Telepoint application is successful, it will consider using equipment from any manufacturers, and if unsuccessful, it hasn’t firmly ruled out co-operation with licence holders. Further afield, it predicts an intersystem roaming calling system – in which Telepoint holders are able to use all other systems – by the end of 1991, while Telepoint Plus, a two-way, Telepoint-to-Telepoint service will appear around the mid-1990s. The joint venture was the result of an objective on the part of municipally-owned Kingston Communications to break out of its 120 square mile regional shell, and for Plessey to broaden its operations from its traditional manufacturing base into information services, a strategic move reflected by its acquisition of the Hoskyns Group Plc earlier this year.
