Thatcham, Berkshire-based Paknet Ltd, a joint venture company set up this year and owned equally by Cable & Wireless Plc and Racal Telecommunications Plc, has developed a radio-based data communications network that will, claims Paknet, revolutionise shopping habits by carrying out credit card checks and funds transfer dramatically faster than conventional telephone line-based Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale systems. By using small radio terminals sending signals to its own Paknet network or an existing one, the system reportedly enables the two-way transfer of data messages to take place in three seconds, so that a credit card can be authorised by the main computer in seven seconds – against the 40 seconds that Paknet claims the same process takes now. Because of the radio link, installation is said to be easy, and the terminals, which are about the same size as a video cassette, are easily portable. Paknet envisages that in the UK, the system will probably be overlaid on existing carphone and radiopaging transmitter sites, using separate discrete channels in the 160MHz waveband. Although the national launch for the system is set for next spring, W H Smith’s Do It All DIY shop in Swindon has been successfully using it on a trial basis for the last two months. Paknet reckons that by mid-1991, the network will be serving 75% of the UK population.
