Swiss Telecom has withdrawn from a key Unisource project leaving the other founding partners Telia AB and PTT Netherland to complete the project alone. Swiss Telecom was stressing that its move to quit the development program did not lesson its commitment to the overall alliance with its Dutch and Swedish partners. The project has been developing an invoicing system for so-called family and friends tariffs – under which telephone subscribers are offered discounts on calls to frequently dialed numbers. The project had a budget of SwFr 250m or $166.7m and involved 200 staff from the three partners, including 30 from Telecom PTT. Swiss Telecom decided to pull out of the development project after seeing delays and shortcomings revealed by tests, according to the Swiss Telecom spokesperson Sepp Huber. One part of the project will be completed as planned, but Telecom will develop its own second stage which is designing billing for specific customers, said Huber, which confirms a report in the Swiss Berner Zeitung newspaper.
