- The Guardian,
- Wednesday May 9 2001
The shake-up at BT continued yesterday when it announced plans to start making money out of its world-renowned Suffolk technology laboratory at Martelsham, near Ipswich.
BTexact Technologies, a business division based around the laboratories which have been responsible for some of the most important technological advances of the past three decades, is to start providing services to organisations outside BT for the first time.
"Ten years ago you could have argued that Martelsham was stuffed full of rocket scientists and academics but we now have a commercially driven organisation, said Stewart Davies, chief executive of BTexact. "There is enormous value locked up in BTexact Technologies and with our new remit to serve external organisations we can develop further revenues whilst working with BT's businesses."
He expects the unit to have revenues of £300m this year.
Over the years experts at Martelsham have built up 14,000 patents and pioneered the development of important technologies, including optical fibre, video conferencing and passenger phones on aircraft. Last year it claimed it owned the patent to hyperlinks, one of the building blocks of the internet which allows users to click from one web page to another.
The new commercial drive will see experts offer consultancy, design and development across a range of technologies including telecoms networks, multimedia applications and network security, Mr Davies said. He also becomes responsible for Brightstar, the corporate incubator BT set up last year to develop stand-alone companies based on technologies its develops.
