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This is a snapshot of part of
their history that relates directly to the UK.
By
CBR Staff
Writer
May 4th, 1988
The UK arm of Southwestern Bell Corp, Southwestern Bell
Telecom UK, is preparing an assault on the European telephone equipment
market, with 14 products is lined up for launch this year.
Activity will be restricted to the UK for the first year,
says John King, sales and marketing director at the UK subsidiary, but he
confirms that his brief is to develop a European operation over time. He
refuses to disclose specific business targets but says that the operation
will be a multi-million dollar business in Year One: As a subsidiary of the
US Fortune 24 company, there is no point in being a minority player he says.
He launched a private premises pay-phone last week in
anticipation of an Oftel announcement on deregulation, and this follows last
month’s launch of the FC7 basic telephone (CI No 903). A further 12 products
addressing the basic, feature and cordless telephone markets are in the
pipeline for summer launch. But Southwestern faces no mean task in wresting
market share from the likes of British Telecom and GEC or competing with the
new, aggressive arrivals to the liberalised market like Norton. But King
reckons that most of the players in this market would find it impossible to
launch 14 products in one year and also says that this frenzy of activity is
a sign of the company’s faith in the UK market. I think that the market has
gone through the first phase of maturing and will now benefit from the
injection of brand offerings.
Most of Southwestern’s products will be anglicised
versions of equipment sold in the US by the parent, though a few, such as
the pay-phone, were designed specifically for the UK. More innovative Its
efforts in the cordless phone arena will concentrate on catering to the
domestic customer’s requirements for the time being. Despite the headway
being made in the CT2 standard for mobile cordless technology, King suspects
that The mass market will confine its spending to around the UKP100 mark and
doubts whether anyone is ready to launch a CT2 service.
Meanwhile the new domestic cordless standard TG47 became
available last year and King hopes that his company will be among the first
to offer a product that conforms. Year Two of business for the fledgling
company will see the release of further products, this time of a more
innovative nature. For example, the parent company has just launched a
voice-activated telephone, an item sufficiently novel to merit a few
seconds’ airspace on the Good Morning America TV show. King describes future
application scenarios such as asking the phone to make a call to the bank,
possibly playing a pre recorded message. More important for the UK arm is
the pool of resources and technical innovation at its disposal, he says. The
full potential of the company’s telephone range will only be realised when
British Telecom has completed the digitalisation of its exchanges, King
concedes. Sets are equipped with pulse tone switching which can take
advantage of Centrex-type features when they arrive. Telecom does offer the
Star Services option, which enables the customer to redirect or block calls
on the local exchange, but this is limited to a few London exchanges at
present, and Telecom has not given any dates for wider availability. But he
promises users of the Southwestern product that it will not be obsoleted
when Star Services expands.
By
CBR Staff
Writer
September 25th, 1989
Southwestern Bell Telecom UK, Southwestern Bell
Corp’s Southall, West London-based division, set up in 1987 to sell
a range telecommunication products to the UK residential and small
business market, has introduced several more products to its already
extensive range.
Working on the assumption that the cordless phone and
the answering machine are popular products in their own right,
Southwestern Bell has come up with what is surprisingly the first
amalgam of these products in the UK. In addition to the usual features,
the FF680 combined cordless telephone and answering machine also offers
the Digital Call Guard system, which prevents other cordless phone users
from listening in to calls.
The FF680 will retail at UKP190, with a trade price
of around UKP120. Four new answering machines are also available which
Southwestern Bell claims offer a feature package not previously
available for the price. The FA1960 and FA1850 are both single tape
machines that include full remote operation; the FA1850’s features
include call monitoring, one-touch playback, volume and microprocessor
control; the FA1960 has 30 memories, on-hook and chain dialling, recall,
pause and hearing-aid compatibility. The FA1960 and FA1850 retail at
UKP70 and UKP100 respectively. The FA1625 and FA1525 are dual tape
versions with some remote control features, such as remote turn on and
remote time saver; the FA1625, which has a built in telephone and a 10
number memory, retails at UKP130 and the FA1525 comes in at UKP100.
The St Louis, Missouri-based parent company,
Southwestern Bell Corp, which had a turnover of $8,000m in 1988, was
formed in 1983 as a result of a divestiture from AT&T, and has been the
most conservative of the Baby Bells in terms of diversification and
making acquisitions – and may have been wise in that – many of the
acquisitions made by the others have turned sour, and several have been
sold again. In designing and marketing telephone products, it is
sticking close to its last: in the US it is known mainly for the Freedom
Phone, which sold a million in just over two years; Southwestern Bell
UK, which now markets 16 products and uses extensive advertising to make
its presence felt, is committed to achieving the same success in the UK.
SOUTHWESTERN BELL
INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
Company number 02378768
Incorporated in the UK on 3rd May 1989.
Dissolved in the UK on 15th August 2017.
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