UK Trade & Industry Secretary Peter Lilley announced on Friday that he will accept applications from British Aerospace Communications and Alpha Lyracom to provide international services by satellite: the licences will enable them to connect one end of international voice calls to the public network, and to connect directly to the network at both ends with data traffic; Lilley said that they can send voice calls between two points on the public network within the UK; also, mobile data operators can now offer fixed radio-based services, rather than using Mercury Communications Ltd or British Telecommunications Plc dial-up lines for several services.
