Thwarted by the Department of Trade & Industry in its original plan to enter the UK value-added network market in partnership with British Telecommunications Plc, IBM is preparing to announce a backdoor link to Telecom via a network services tie-up with Telecom’s 60%-owned Cellnet cellular mobile telephone operating company. According to the London Daily News, IBM will later this month announce a service that will enable portable IBM Personalike users to access data held on mainframes around the world via the Cellnet service, and also to connect to IBM’s Warwick-based Business Network Services computer services operation for applications such as electronic mail, and also to tap into databases such as the business statistics database compiled by Extel Group Plc.
