The process of UK telecommunications liberalisation shuffled forward another step last Thursday when Trade Secretary Peter Lilley said he had decided in principle to accept applications from British Aerospace Communications and Alpha Lyracom to be allowed to provide new international services by satellite. The new licences will enable the companies to connect one end of international voice calls directly to the public telephone network. The phone at the other end however, has to be part of a private network, thus ensuring that British Telecom and Mercury do not suffer competition in the international call market. The Department of Trade & Industry went one step further with data traffic however, deeming that the two operators could connect directly to public networks at both ends of the link if required. One twist of the announcement is that for connections within the UK, the satellite companies will have complete freedom to send voice calls between two points on the public network, acting as long distance carriers. It is highly unlikely that such a service will make economic sense, however. Both British Aerospace and Lyracom have two way licences in France and Germany, but the US currently prohibits connections to the public voice network. In the same announcement, Lilley made changes to the UK’s mobile data regime. The three existing mobile data operators – Cognito, RAM Mobile Data and Hutchison Mobile Data – will now be able to offer fixed, radio-based services, such as telemetry, while Paknet, hitherto restricted to fixed services, will be allowed to offer mobile data. In effect, all four now have identical licences, much to their delight. To date, they had to use public dial up lines for a number of applications where their own radio links would have been just as effective. – Chris Rose
