France Telecom announcement that it will inaugurate its Itineris Groupe Speciale Mobile digital cellular telephone network on July 1 in Paris and Lyon (CI No 1,942) makes it one of the earlier implementors of the European digital standard. Investment in the project is to top $832m. The network will be extended by the end of 1992 to cover the area from Lille in the north-east, via Paris, Lyon and Marseille, to Nice near the Italian border. Service is to be sold both directly and via supermarket chains like Carrefour. Additionally, handset manufacturers such as France’s will also be wooed as agents, and France Telecom says that it already has agreements with nine different firms. Subscribers will be given Smart Cards enabling them to use any phone on the network: as well making calls and having them charged to their own account, the cards will enable them to receive calls dialled to their own numbers. Handsets will cost about the same as their analogue counterparts, between $1,850 and $3,700, while the monthly subscription fee has been set at around $70. Alcatel Radiotelephone and Alcatel CIT provided the equipment for the 48-cell network, which includes switching and associated mobile modules, the radio subsystem (three controllers and 48 base stations) and the control system.
