Marconi Communications

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marconi Communications is a principal subsidiary of the Marconi Corporation plc and was formerly known as GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT). The company was a world leading telecommunications manufacturer.

[edit] GPT

The General Electric Company (GEC) attempted a takeover of Plessey in 1986 but was barred by regulatory authorities. Instead in 1988 GEC and Plessey merged their telecommunications businesses as GEC-Plessey Telecommunications (GPT). GPT was a world leader in many fields, for example Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technology.

In 1989 GEC and Siemens acquired the Plessey Company through the joint company GEC Siemens plc. While most of Plessey was divided between the companies GPT remained a joint venture, with a 60/40 shareholding between GEC and Siemens respectively.

In August 1998 GEC acquired Siemens' 40% stake in GPT and merged with the telecoms units of its Italian subsidiary Marconi SpA, GEC Hong Kong and ATC South Africa to form Marconi Communications.

In 1997 in the UK, the name GPT disappeared and the company was called SGCS (Siemens GEC Communication Systems). A year later SCGS merged with SBCS (Siemens Business Communication Systems) to form Siemens Communications Ltd.

At present, a "carve out" process is in effect, and the company is now known as Siemens Enterprise Communication Ltd. It is widely expected that Siemens will announce a new partner for SECL on October 1st 2006.

[edit] Marconi Communications

In March 1999 GEC added RELTEC, a telecommunication network and access products manufacturer, to Marconi Communications. In April FORE Systems was added to the group. Until the collapse of the Marconi group in 2001 the $4.5Bn company was a major supplier of Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Gigabit Ethernet and Internet Protocol products.