The telepoint was a short-lived form of mobile communication - a sort of cross between a mobile phone and a telephone box - or between a cellphone and a domestic cordless

A telepoint phone was a cordless handset that allowed both incoming and outgoing calls around the house - and which you took with you when you went out. In the street, it would let you make outgoing calls within 150 metres of a street transmitter.

Telepoint was supposed to extend mobile to everyone - but the falling cost of cellular phones in the UK and their increasing range made it obsolete almost from the start.

BT's Phonepoint was one of four telepoint contenders, along with Mercury Callpoint, Zonephone and Rabbit. The first telepoint service was launched early in 1989, and lasted for only a couple of years. All four had opened - and closed - by 1994.

But in the Pacific Rim countries, telepoint has been quite successful, suiting the prevalent 'street culture' admirably - and proved much cheaper to install than a fully fledged cellular mobile network.