The System X project

Next month will see the first public showing of System X, the new range of British-made telecommunication switching systems that represents a `make or break¿ attempt to restore the British telecommunication industry to its former role of being a major force in world telecommunication. System X, however, is not so much a range of specific equipment designs as a whole approach to the problems of telecommunication modernisation that is based on the pooled expertise of the British Post Office and the three main British telecommunication-equipment manufacturers. Impressive as the technical specification of the System X equipment may be, it is the arrangements for uniting the efforts of the four participants, and the new spirit of enterprise that lies behind them, that forms the real strongpoint of the System X venture