Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

A powerful group of MPs has called on the British government to change
its rules that prevent British Telecom and Mercury transmitting television
signals down telephone lines. MPs on the all-party Trade and Industry Select
Committee say that this change is vital if Britain is to create an ‘information
superhighway’ – and reap the benefits that come with it.

But sources within the Department of Trade and Industry indicate that
the policy laid down in the 1991 White Paper on telecommunications is unlikely
to change. This policy bans telecommunications operators from competing
with cable TV companies until at least 2001. BT, too, does not foresee
any change: ‘In political terms there are the same people at the DTI as
²ú±ð´Ú´Ç°ù±ð.’

It is also unlikely that any minister will promote the ‘superhighway’
idea in the same evangelical way that vice-president Al Gore has in the
US. ‘We feel that there is already a recognition that this will be important
for the future,’ says a source at the DTI.

But the MPs say such an approach is too passive. ‘Wait-and-see might
have been credible five years ago, but not today,’ says Richard Caborn,
the committee chairman. ‘The idea of the superhighway offers businesses
significant productivity gains and new ways of working. It’s not just new
forms of entertainment. There is a strong social dimension, leading to advanced
education, training, interactive healthcare and improved public services.’

The committee’s report, published last week, calls on the government
to begin opening up Britain’s existing 125 cable franchises to competition
from telecommunications operators from next year. The MPs say that over
the next seven years franchises should gradually be opened up to competition,
leading to a completely open market by 2002.

It says the government should lift the ban which prevents telecommunications
operators from transmitting broadcast services such as TV signals. The signals
would be sent over ‘broadband’ networks, usually consisting of fibre-optic
cables which are capable of carrying more than 10 000 megabits of data per
second. The MPs argue that opening up the cable franchises to wider competition
would encourage the building of a nationwide network, effectively creating
a superhighway.

Keith Hampson, a member of the committee, admits that he and some colleagues
had been surprised by the importance of the topic. ‘We thought it would
be rather boring and technical at first,’ he says. ‘But we quickly came
to the conclusion that we had to push it, and hard. There’s such drive
and enthusiasm for it in the US.’

The principal effect of the changes the committee suggests would be
to allow BT and Mercury to bid to provide video and transmission services
to homes, businesses, libraries and schools. The committee argues that
the danger of creating a BT monopoly could be offset by laws that would
oblige BT to give any other company ‘fair and open access’ to its network,
so that rivals could offer competing services.

BT says: ‘The report was pretty critical of the government. We would
give the report a thumbs up if it was implemented, as BT would like.’