The UK Office of Telecommunications has published its first set of market share figures, showing British Telecommunications Plc’s domination easing only slightly. The company’s share of total retail call revenue slipped to 88% in 1993-94 from 90% the previous year. Mercury Communications Ltd’s share crept up by one point to 10% in the same period. The total call revenue was ú7,000m in 1992-93, rising to ú7,400m in 1993-94. The number of mobile phones in the UK rose from 1.3m in March 1992, to 1.5m a year later and 2.3m by March last year, though this figure has now topped three million. Prior to its decision to scrap all its pay phones (CI No 2,559), Mercury’s revenues in that area were declining while the number of installations rose. British Te lecom’s figures were going in the opposite direction. Don Cruickshank, Oftel director general said that the lack of high quality information available prompted the publication of the figures, and future publications will provide more detail. One hopes the figures will also be more contemporaneous: these end at March last year.
