Ferranti International Plc’s Zonephone Telepoint consortium looks to be not long for this world, and yesterday, Cable & Wireless Plc’s Mercury Communications Ltd announced that it was running down its Callpoint Telepoint operation to concentrate on Personal Communications Network, leaving the field to the British Telecommunications Plc Phonepoint consortium and Rabbit, now the property of Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd. The other investors in the Mercury Callpoint consortium are Motorola Inc and Shaye Communications Ltd. Separately, it is widely expected that Hutchison will complement its Telepoint interest by buying a big stake in the Microtel Ltd Personal Communications Network consortium where British Aerospace Plc now has 82%. Hutchison is expected to buy a large part of that 82% holding.
