One month after the US Federal Communications Commission granted the ACC Global arm of ACC Corp the first international simple resale telecommunications licence to the UK from the US end, the UK government yesterday announced that it would add the US to the countries – presently Sweden, Australia and Canada – to which international simple resale is sanctioned. This allows telephone operators, whether they have their own facilities or not, to lease transatlantic and inland capacity from British Telecommunications Plc and Mercury Communications Ltd and resell it: crucially, it allows the operator to offer end-to-end dial-up calls, putting them in direct competition with the established players, and tending to drive down the price of international calls. Cable & Wireless Plc and British Telecommunications Plc both put out statements saying that they welcomed the liberalisation measure, with British Telecom saying that it would benefit its Concert joint venture with affiliate MCI Communications Corp.
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