Not too surprisingly, the news of a personal communications network licence for Mercury Communications banged the shares of both Racals and British Telecommunications Plc, but first reactions may be a little too shortsighted: both Racal Telecommunications Group and British Telecom through Cellnet have much more experience of running cellular networks than does any company in the major continental countries, and both are increasingly seeking to sell their expertise abroad by joining consortia bidding for licences in markets where consumers tend to be expected to pay much more for communications services than they do in the British market.
