The Cable Television Association is complaining to the Office of Telecommunications about proposed interconnection charges from British Telecom and Mercury Communications, saying the charges will have a detrimental effect on investment in the industry. The Association is in dispute with the telecommunications operators over the part of the charge which contributes to the cost of building and maintaining the public network. It claims that Mercury and BT are attempting retrospectively tocharge cable operators for historical costs, such as installing the network, in a proposed access deficit fee. This is as well as charging for contributions to current investment costs, which the Association agrees that it should pay. Cable operators claim that the charge could undo the White Paper proposals for deregulating local loop telecommunications. In the White Paper published last month, the government banned the Mercury and BT from offering television entertainment services for 10 years and allowed cable companies to switch telephony between non-adjacent franchises as well as eventually provide their own trunking services.
