In France there are no such battles about regulation – the word of the Minister for the Post Office, Telecommunications and Space is law and everything is embodied in the France Telecom monopoly. The Minister has been summarising his chief objectives for 1991, saying he is looking continued development of high definition television, and the launch of a technological drive in the world of computers.The minister, Paul Quiles, outlined the aims of the new ministry last week and delivered his New Year resolutions. The ministry emerged from the reform of the post and telecommunications administration, which established the autonomy of the Post Office, French Telecom and the Centre Nationale d’Etudes Scientifiques. On the subject of space, the Minister noted that following the Ariane accident in February, European rocket launches had resumed with the regularity of a metronome, with five flights in July alone. He also highlighted the success of the intermediate standard for high definition TV, D2 Mac and thus of cable and direct broadcast satellite. In telecommunications he said his primary objective was to foster breakthroughs in computer-related fields such as multimedia transmission and video phones and to regain the initiative from the Japanese. Reviewing 1990, Quiles said there were now 28m telephone lines installed, 1m more than in 1989, and the installed base of Minitels reached 5.6m, with 80m connect hours recorded, a 14% rise.
