ALCATEL HC400 (Barclaycard)
The phone is in excellent condition and has been fully checked and is supplied boxed with all the original contents. The phone is very rare for a phone 15 yrs + old, and would make an ideal retro gift. The phone operates on 900MHZ in the UK (Voda/O2) or any GSM 900MHZ network abroad. The phone may require additional unlocking for use abroad.
Please note: Due to the age of used batteries we cannot offer any form of warranty with them. They can be up to 15 years old. We check that the battery powers up the phone but have now way of testing how long the battery will perform for. We therefore recommend to get the best performance from your phone is to purchase a new battery. We do not supply them; however they are sold for a few pounds on eBay.
First launched in 1995 simply as a cheap way for Barclaycard customers to go mobile, the service is being gradually expanded to include banking services, and ultimately will offer”travel, ticketing and information services”.
Of the 2.4 million Cellnet clients in the UK, 150,000 use the Barclays-branded unit. They have additional incentive to annoy people on trains or in the street with their loud conversation and wild gesticulating as the Barclays phone comes with a 20-per cent discount on the normal Cellnet call charges.
Technologically, the service is no ground-breaker, but integrating online information, banking services and instant transaction facilities is key - even if it is a little slow in coming.
Current users are limited to accessing account or credit-card information, and receiving the equivalent of a mini-statement displayed on the unit’s screen. Facilities for paying bills and moving funds between accounts are still being trialed.
A traffic update service is due to be launched by the end of this year, and ’lifestyle services’ ranging from football scores to share updates are mooted for early 1998. Cellnet is itself already offering such services, albeit with the necessary aid of a web site, as part of its new ’Genie’ service (Revolution, October).
The elegance of the system is that it relies on a technology already familiar to consumers - a mobile handset - which was, according to Barclays, described by 97 per cent of customers as ”easy to use”. The screen is icon-based, and a joystick-style button makes navigation simple.
Barclays says it is also closely following a new Visa Cash trial in Leeds, to see if it can incorporate wireless e-cash downloads into the service. Customers will see their funds moving in circles as they pay off their credit card, download some cash and then have their call charges billed direct to their Barclaycard account. Fortunately for anyone selling the products that will be bought via this phone, the circle isn’t perfect - money still has to leak out somewhere.
Product: Barclaycard-Cellnet phone
