A consortium headed by TRT-Philips SA and including GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd has won a contract worth UKP100m with the French digital cellular operator, Francaise de Radiotelephonie SA, in what is seen as a breakthrough into the French telecommunications market. The tightly controlled French telecommunications market has always been difficult for foreign firms to crack, with many UK companies complaining that a deregulated UK market lets in foreign companies to compete, while government controlled European markets firmly lock UK firms out. Francaise de Radiotelephonie is a private sector operator and is setting up a digital cellular network, in competition to the one that the state-owned France Telecom will open. The contract involves switching, software and base station equipment for the network, but the main part of the contract, valued at around UKP200m, was awarded to the French-owned Alcatel NV. Other companies in the consortium include Siemens AG and Bosch Telecom GmbH.
