The consortium in which Racal Telecommunications Plc plans to bid for one of the two cellular telephone franchises in West Germany – the other will go to the Deutsche Bundespost – is now in place. Led, as reported (CI No 1,101) by Bayerische MotorenWerke AG, BMW, the consortium also includes industrial goods producer Veba AG, BellSouth Corp of Atlanta, Georgia, which is also pitching to be a big cellular player on its home turf – but outside its local phone region (CI No 1,117), and Cofira SA, in which Racal holds 4%, and which is the only operator of an analogue cellular system in France. Racal is hoping that its shareholding in the joint company that will be formed if the consortium wins a licence will be big enough to enable it to consolidate the figures of the business with its own – but that is a very long way away, and rival consortia, one of which is expected to include British Telecommunications Plc will be fighting fiercely.
RACAL TELECOM JOINS BELLSOUTH, COFIRA IN BMW-VEGA GERMAN CELLULAR CONSORTIUM
