Mercury Communications Ltd has announced what it claims is a world first with the launch of the first public X400 service based on the CCITT’s 1988 recommendations. The service is to be offered as part of Mercury’s integrated facsimile, telex and electronic mail service, MultiMessage, reported recently, and is to go live at the Telecommunications Managers Association show later this month. It is being aimed at large corporate users and, as a result, financially does not compare favourably with other services for low volumes: there is a UKP100 registration fee, and each MTA to be delivered to is UKP50. The minimum monthly charge is to be UKP2,000. The launch is part of a wider move by Cable and Wireless to expand the X400 market worldwide, and the Mercury product is to form the basis of Cable and Wireless’s X400 operations elsewhere. Ken Walters, Cable’s General Manager for X400 operations, has stated that the company intends to introduce a global X400 service in the near future and that an announcement can be expected in the next six months. Hong Kong is to be the next venue and Cable intends to manage the service itself in Hong Kong, the UK, and the US with agreements with 16 service providers currently being finalised. Following the publication of recommendations for electronic data-interchange, EDI, being run over X400, Cable and Wireless also expects to be making an announcement on its own system in the near future. As has happened with MultiMessage, any system Cable adopts will be offered here by Mercury in predominantly the same form.
