GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd has announced the formation of a French subsidiary, known as GPTelecom SA, intended to respond to the growing demand for GEC Plessey’s products across the channel. Rupert Soames, president and managing director of the new company, said that the UKP20m worth of business gained by French telecommunications firms in England and their English counterparts in the French market was a ridiculously small figure that reflects the continuing problem of differing standards – the setting up of a French division in addition to existing plant in Madrid and Rome, continued Soames, is part of GEC Plessey’s policy of seeing not just the UK, but the whole of Europe as its home market, and should help pre-empt calls for increased European standardisation. Simultaneous announcements have also been made regarding marketing agreements between GPTelecom and two France-based companies, notably Siemens SA, whose parent company Siemens along with GEC took over Plessey in the UK recently. Details of the agreement have yet to be finalised but for GPTelecom it will probably mean access to Siemens technology and products for the French communications network market. GPTelecom will also be collaborating with AETA SA to supply transmission networks in France; at present, the two companies are said to be processing proposals for two France Telecom projects – an optical transmission network capable of sending data at 565Mbps, and development of equipment to install fibre-optic nets on business premises.
