Failed Technologies:

In this report on my researched topics I have tried to focus on 3 main areas:

·	Why the technology failed in the first place
·	What could have been done to stop the technology failing
·	Whether it could have been predicted that this technology would fail at the time or today



CT2 digital cordless phone system
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The Rabbit system was one of four location specific phone services that existed in the late 80’s. In 1989 the radio communications agency issued licences that allowed Rabbit and the other 3 companies Phonepoint, Mercury Callpoint and Zonephone to use a cordless phone from home, in the office and around the UK. There was only one small problem: The phones could not accept incoming calls on the move since they had to be within 100m or a specific CT2 call point.

In the Rabbit system run by Hutchinson Telecom these were called Rabbit points, and were generally located at points which the company thought would be popular with the general public. These included places such as Train stations, banks, shopping systems and in some cases even on underground platforms. Essentially they were low power cordless phone transmitters like people have at home, except with a multi capacity.

The system seemed like a fairly good idea when it was first designed. At this point nobody was able to afford mobile phones which were only just starting to appear, and the Rabbit handset cost only £199 which was very reasonable at the time. However the two problems that led to the failure of the CT2 technology were the trouble for customers having to find a network access point, and therefore the impossibility of being able to accept incoming calls.

Unlike most recent communication failures, this time it was not really marketing that caused the eventual failure of the CT2 Digital cordless system. From the start the technology was fundamental flawed since when the Rabbit system was launched in may 1992 it was already directly competing with a much more advanced communication system that overcame the CT2 problems - the GSM phone. Although the Rabbit system was cheaper, the inconvenience of having to page somebody to tell them to find a Rabbit point, so you could speak to them when they finally called you is a bit of a palaver compared to a slightly more expensive GSM phone.

It was therefore not surprising that despite having lots of communication points across the country, it was only a year and a half before the owner’s of Rabbit, Hutchinson telecom, decided to shut down the loss making service in December 1993. This may have also been contributed to since in April 1994, they launched their own GSM service called Orange!

So could the CT2 Digital Cordless have succeeded in the UK? This questions is probably quite simple to answer, since I believe it would be “no”. The only way the system would have survived would have been if it had been around long before GSM, or GSM hadn’t been invented. However if either of these statements was true, it is more than likely it still would have failed since GSM would have still have succeeded it or there would have been another technology like GSM to succeed it.

This leads on to whether the CT2 failure could have been predicted to fail back when it first entered service in the late 80’s and early 90’s. This is slightly harder to answer, however I think that if careful consideration and proper evaluation had been carried out, it would have seemed obvious that GSM would succeed it. After all people don’t want the inflexibility of only being able to make outgoing calls, when they could already have a pager for incoming messages, and they could find a phone box and use their charge card to ring somebody back. The other advantage for the person using a telephone box is that somebody could call them back, and they didn’t have to worry about the battery running out. In addition phone boxes were in a much greater supply than access points for Rabbit phones. 

So is the idea of access point communications a complete failure. Well up until a few years ago, most people would have thought this to have been the case. However there are no plans from BT and Megabeam to provide wireless LAN access points at popular places such as train stations and shopping centres. It all sounds fairly similar to almost 20 years ago when people thought Rabbit was the future!

To be continued……

http://www.cellsites.co.uk/Rabbit/rabbit.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2175804.stm
http://www.oftel.gov.uk/about/history.htm