If the Ambassador, Statesman, Viscount etc seemed fairly straightforward phones, the Sceptre was intended to be different and more up-market. Designed by BT from an experimental phone of 1979 called the Microtel, this phone was amongst the first to have a display and the first to be driven by a micro-processor. When not in use, the display showed the time. Apart from the fairly normal 10 number memory, it also featured a call timer. The model shown was built at BT’s Cwmcarn factory, though a number of outside firms also produced it, including Denis Ferranti Meters and Austin Taylor Electrical.
Kirk