These things take time and over two years after Plessey identified Kenya as a hot prospect for System X exchanges (CI No 367), and eight months after the promise of sales there was confirmed (CI No 845), GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd has won UKP18m business supplying System X exchanges to Kenya’s rural exchange project – and is looking for further scoops when the rest of the country goes digital. The contract is to provide 16 System X exchanges, to be supplied through the interim export agency, Communication Supplies Ltd. Kenya has just 120,000 lines installed at present, serving a 2m population, which works out at roughly one phone per town and the government is planning a complete digital network over the next few years. GEC and Plessey carved up the initial order for the backbone network of smaller regional UXD5 exchanges placed three years ago which is now complete. British Telecom Plc’s trading arm Teletrade was responsible for negotiating the deal and overseeing installation on that occasion. GEC Plessey Telecom is now exporting System X to Colombia and to China for the Railway project with considerable headway being made in discussions with Ecuador and Bulgaria, said an official. Efforts are also underway to penetrate other markets including Australia and the Eastern Bloc, but Kenya represents the first sale in Africa.