The Barclays Bank-Philips NV-Shell Oil Telepoint joint venture BYPS Communications has finally come out of its shell to announce the signing of a UKP30m deal with GEC Plessey Telecommunications, committing it to a Telepoint system manufactured under the CAI Common Air Interface standard, which, claims BYPS, will make its product futureproof, since CAI is due to be adopted as a regulatory standard by the end of next year: the announcement is timely in more ways than one, firstly because BYPS was in danger of giving the impression of having shut up shop, and secondly because some action was needed to give Telepoint the chance to establish itself before the arrival of the Personal Communications Network. By using CAI, and by enabling users to communicate via base stations of other future service operators, the BYPS Telepoint system is geared to match the spirit of ex-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Lord Young’s speech in January of this year, in which freedom of choice of equipment was put at a premium. The networks will be up and running by spring 1990 with around 7,000 of the 200 yard range base stations installed in Barclays Bank branches, Shell service stations and other locations: GEC Ples sey, which also produces the handsets, anticipate manufacturing from 60,000 to 120,000 of them in the corresponding period. The handsets themselves offer only limited two-way commmunication – calls can be received only from a home base station – and will therefore rely on relatively low costing to create an initial niche in the mobile communications market, coming in at under UKP200 a set with tariffs said to be on a par with existing public callbox charges. Genuine portability will be another factor, and al though the BYPS handsets are considerably less bulky than the existing cellular mobile phones, the Shea handset, for example, is smaller: BYPS, however, ex plains away the size difference by claiming that the liquid crystal display incorporated in its offering responds to proven customer demand for visual display of the number dialled and so justifies its inclusion. From GEC Plessey’s point of view, the BYPS deal vali dates a UKP3m investment in plant at Kirkaldy, Scot land, where the radio bases and handsets will be man ufactured; moreover, although GEC Plessey’s CAI tech nology will go exclusively to BYPS in the short-term, the company sees yesterday’s announcement as giving it a strong position to win CAI business worldwide.
