British Telecommunications Plc is to delay putting the next slice of its digital exchanges contract out to tender. The delay is to enable it to renegotiate the bid proposed by the new GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd for the last round, which was rejected at the time as commercially unacceptable. Tranche 13 was the first joint bid tendered by GEC and Plessey, and the rival supplier, Thorn-Ericsson Ltd walked off with a generous order leaving its rival to thrash it out with Telecom. Telecom could not say when agreement might be reached.
