British Telecom’s premium telephone information services – the 0898 numbers – are decidedly pricey at 38 pence a minute, 25 pence evening and weekends, but Honeywell Bull Ltd has developed an ingenious spin-off of its computer system used by the BBC in its television coverage of cricket to provide a telephone service that just about provides value even at the outrageous Telecom prices: in conjunction with Paris SportInfo and Telephone Information Services Plc, the company has developed an interface between the DPS 6 minicomputer used to update the card and the statistics ball-by-ball and the phone system so that starting with the Benson & Hedges cup final between Northants and Yorkshire this Saturday, as well as providing its service to the Beeb, the computer will pass packets of data on the state of the match to a Bull Personalike that will then generate a spoken message updated over by over and at the fall of each wicket and end of an innings; the number for the Cricket Service is 0898 500 350.
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