Japan picked up the idea of privatisation from Britain, and now British Rail is lobbying hard to be allowed to copy Japan National Railways and move into telecommunications. The state owned railway system, which could become a much more attractive privatisation candidate with a big cash-generating telecommunications arm, already has a fibre optic network as extensive as that of Mercury Communications Ltd, and according to the Financial Times it wants to become the third UK common carrier, competing head to head with British Telecommunications Plc and Mercury. Mercury has been promised a clear run to get established until November 1990, but British Rail will be head of the queue for a licence thereafter and if it is not allowed to compete directly, it would like to sub-let capacity on its system to third parties. Ahead of any operator’s licence, it is seeking approval to route all its telephone traffic down its own lines, only leaving them to get into the local network for outside calls. At present only internal British Rail calls may use the network – 1,250 miles of fibre optic cable, 150 switches, 63,000 extensions. British Rail is also interested in the planned Personal Communications Networks.
