Racal Vodafone Ltd is putting a new name to its Private Wire service, which makes a UK cellular telephone look like an extension of a company’s PABX. The service, now called Vodanet, provides a direct link using a leased line between a firm’s PABX and the nearest radio base station in the area in which, for example, a team of sales representatives might be working. Previously, the company would have had to run a dedicated leased line between its PABX and the regional Vodafone exchange, which are fewer in number than the base stations, making the service considerably more costly at up to fivepence a minute. Car telephones can be dialled direct from a PABX extension by pre fixing the mobile telephone number with a short access code and individual office extensions can also be dialled direct from a cellular telephone.
