Orbitel Mobile Communications Ltd, the four-year-old cellular phone manufacturer that is 50% owned by Racal Telecom Plc’s Vodafone Group and 50% by L M Ericsson Telefon AB, has been demonstrating its new pan-European digital cellular, or Groupe Speciale Mobile, handsets at the Comex ’91 show in Wembley. The Basingstoke, Hampshire-based company, which has 600 employees and turned over UKP47m last year, operates in three main areas digital cellular phone systems, digital cordless phones and personal communications. The new GSM terminal is the result of a UKP10m research and development programme. The product is being assembled at Orbitel’s new UKP12m production plant in Carlton-in-Lindrick, Nottinghamshire, and is being advertised in a Saatchi & Saatchi Plc campaign. The user-friendly handset features a four-row liquid crystal display with 48 alpha-numeric characters, designed to prompt the user on how to access the GSM services. This facility is available in English, German and French as standard on all handsets. The terminals also support the credit-card-sized GSM subscriber smart cards – SIMS – which are the subscribers’ means of access to the networks. The cards store all relevant account details and information about users’ authorised levels of service. Orbitel managing director Mike Pinches says the company’s focus is on user-friendliness and not on breaking technological records. Orbitel opened an office in Wiesbaden, Germany in January and has signed up distributors over there, where the company has already had its first major coup, with an order for production quantity GSM terminals from Deutsche Bundespost Telekom (CI No 1,710). The company has been working in France for a year, where it hopes to set up a sales office next year once the GSM network is up and running in the country. Orbitel does not make direct sales, nor does it sell directly to dealers. It is in discussions with joint-parent Ericsson on how best to tackle the Swedish market, but Pinches says Orbitel itself has no specific plans for that country. In addition to the UK, Germany and France, Orbitel has designs on setting up in Hong Kong. Mike Pinches said he doesn’t rule out the possibility that the company may begin manufacturing outside the UK, but this isn’t foremost in the company’s plans. As yet, Orbitel doesn’t sell its products on an OEM basis, but says this may be a possibility for the future. Among the manufacturer’s objectives are to become a major worldwide supplier and to achieve a turnover of UKP200m within the next two to three years. The street price of the Orbitel phones in Germany will be around UKP1,500 – hand-portable versions are expected next year.
