The UK Office of Telecommunications yesterday moved to advance the cause of number portability, with telecommunications director general Don Cruickshank proposing to amend telephone companies’ licenses so that they have to offer the service if another operator asks for it. The license modifications will initially be proposed only for users of fixed line telephones, but Cruickshank wants to publish further proposals to extend number portability to cellular phones in May. Separately, Cruickshank said yesterday that British Telecommunications Plc need supply him with information on cross subsidies of its telephone equipment businesses only on a quarterly basis rather than a monthly one. In 1995, he accused it that its Network Application Business was unfairly subsidised or cross-subsidised by other, more profitable parts of the company’s business operations, which could harm competition, but since April 1, British Telecom abandoned rental of cordless telephones, answering and facsimile machines.
