The high and the mighty of the world’s communications industry users and suppliers – were present in force yesterday at the Telecommunications Duopoly Policy Review conference presented by the PA Consultancy Group. Relief was evident by PA that the much awaited duopoly White Paper has yet to be released Computergram understands that the Peter Lilley paper is expected to be issued in the next two weeks. The drama was evident at the speaker’s rostrum at the Intercontinental Hotel in London which was manned by Iain Vallance of British Telecom, Sir Bryan Carsberg, director of the Office of Telecommunications, and Gordon Owen, deputy chief executive of Cable & Wireless. Vallance led the way by making a robust call for a more geniune competitive environment, one which must be both free and flexible. He conceded that in future BT would have an smaller share of an increasingly competitive market and he was adamant that greater flexibility would results in lower call charges which would of course lead to increased network users. In an unaccustomed nervous and perhaps coded speech, Oftel chief Sir Bryan Carsberg, promised delegates that the government duopoly discussion document would provide Christmas presents for all. The Christmas presents might well include improvements in the quality of service, including a reduced level of fault rates the UK has one of the highest levels – improved private network circuit performance, better customer rapport, better user compliant procedures and encouraging cable television companies to implement systems. The part of his speech that caused the most interest was a prediction that call charges could drop by 30% in the next couple of years – he said that by 1993 long distance calls could be one half of present levels and local calls one third, relative to inflation. Sir Bryan saw little chance of working himself out of a job, but recognised that it may be possible for the regulators to have a lesser role in the future – but that was some way off.
