The British Rail board has come down to the wire on its plans to enter the telecommunications business by voting to set up a new company to capitalise on the 10,000-mile telecommunications network running alongside its tracks, reports The Sunday Times: pending Department of Transport approval expected in June, the new company, British Rail Telecoms, will make its fibre optic and copperbased network available to a number of telecommunications operators, and is expecting particularly lucrative business from cable television providers and as the landbased section of future Personal Communication Networks; City analysts are already saying that, if British Rail is privatised, the new telecommunications arm will be worth a fortune.
