The UK Department of Trade & Industry has decided not to reallocate the radio frequency released by the merger of the Unitel Ltd and Mercury Communications Ltd Personal Communications Networks until April 1995 at the earliest. Trade and technology minister Patrick McLoughlin said that the decision was made in light of the fact that Mercury One-2-One has already launched, and Hutchison Telecommunications UK Ltd’s Microtel follows within months. He said that while 22 proposals for the spectrum were received, there was no interest in a third national Personal Communications operator and there was strong support for the spectrum to be held back. He added that proposals for local or regional Personal Communications Network services had been considered very carefully; other proposals may come up for further discussion, the minister indicated, as the Industry Department reckons that it may still be possible to accommodate them in other parts of the radio spectrum.
