Hutchison Personal Communications Ltd’ Rabbit Plus CT-2 package has found a mildly unwelcome new market in the form of customers using it as a cordless phone – without connecting into the Rabbit network. It is not clear whether this is causing Hutchison to make a loss, the company says that it is not subsidising the the price of hand set equipment, but it will not say whether it actually makes a profit on the sets. According to Rick Smith, marketing manager, the company is not enormously bothered that customers use the equipment in this way, but it makes us a little sad. He points out however, that some people may not be aware that Rabbit Plus includes connection to the network and the first quarter’s subscription and by not making the most of this opportunity, customers are losing out. Since Rabbit Plus includes a private base station for home use which allows two-way calling charged at the standard rate, customers have been taking advantage of the fact that CT-2 does not suffer from interference as do the CT-1 analogue cordless phones. At UKP240, the package is still more expensive than high-end CT-1 hand sets, but new markets are oft created on the small object of desire principle. Meanwhile, Hutchison is continuing to roll out its Rabbit service, the latest announcement being that it is available across the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees commercial television areas, as well as that served by Granada.
