It is beginning to look as if, as we suspected (CI No 1,720), there was more sound and fury than substance to British Telecommunications Plc’s threat to brave a Monopolies & Mergers Commission investigation rather than knuckle under to the Office of Telecommunications’ revised regime for access charges, which requires that Telecom’s share of the market should fall to 85% from the present 95% before the charges may be levied: the signs yesterday were that the company would accept a compromise put up by Mercury Communications Ltd under which freedom from access charges would be granted only to companies that made a substantial investment in their own local telephone service infrastructure, which would mean that the British Railways Board, with only a long distance network, would be hit by charges.
