Dolphin Telecom
Dolphin Telecom was a mobile network operator using the TETRA radio access technology.
Dolphin's initial network was in the United Kingdom but they also built networks in France, Germany and Belgium. They decided to position the technology as a 4-in-1 service emphasizing the ability to have telephone, walkie-talkie, SDS (the TETRA equivalent of SMS), and packet data. In hindsight, this approach proved ill-advised because the sound quality of the telephone service was poor and that the technology never delivered a working packet data service on any of their networks.
On 1 August 2001, the company went into administration and a large number of people were made redundant. Another set of redundancies were made later that year and the network ran on a skeleton staff. In June 2002 the network was bought by Inquam for 25m GBP. The service was still marketed under the Dolphin Telecom brand name. On 31 July 2004 the network was finally switched off.
