ComTel Ltd., a United Kingdom-based cable TV company, said it plans to offer its customers mobile telephone service through an agreement with U.K. cellular carrier Cellnet.
ComTel business customers will be able to purchase mobile phones at competitive prices, said the company, which also will offer a 10-percent discount on Cellnet digital standard tariffs and inclusive calls on the three tariffs it will offer.
ComTel, which was launched after the merger of Telecential and ComTel nearly one year ago, has a network that covers more than 175,000 residential and business subscribers. It offers telephony, Internet and cable TV services. The company estimates its potential subscriber base at about 1 million homes.
Customers to the service will be charged on the same bill as their monthly telephone, Internet and cable TV accounts.
ComTel plans to offer its customers mobile phones from Philips that feature voice mail, short message service, voice dial and data compatibility, said the company. Both the Spark and the Diga phones allow 150 hours of standby or 165 minutes of talk time.
“We have a very high take-up on our telephony services for business and residential customers and we are proud to be the first cable operator in the U.K. who has been able to make this offer available to its customers,” said Bill Crawford, ComTel’s managing director.
ComTel said it will market the mobile phone services through direct mail and through its retail shops. The new services will be available to both new and existing customers.
ComTel is a wholly owned subsidiary of KPN, the Netherlands’ Royal Post Telephone and Telegraph organization. Cellnet was formed by British Telecommunications plc and Securicor Group plc. The wireless carrier launched its Global System for Mobile communications network in 1985 and supports more than 3 million customers today.
The mobile telephone market in the United Kingdom currently supports about 8.5 million subscribers.
Growth forecasts suggest the market could reach between 11 million and 12 million customers by 2000, according to ComTel.
