Backed by US West and its parent company United Artists Entertainment, United Artists Communications has begun a telephony service for the Croydon business community (CI No 1,572). The move follows the Office of Telecommunications’ decision back in October to grant United a tele-phony licence, and it comes just a few weeks after the Duopoly Review in which the government proposes to deny British Telecommunications the opportunity to put entertainment television down its wires for at least seven years – providing the cable industry with the same breathing space that was allocated to Mercury Communications. United has linked with Mercury which is providing switching and UK trunk and international connections, it already has similar agreements with four other cable companies. US West’s interest is probably in gaining access to the UK local loop, which could be very useful if it wants to offer local loop facilities to international telecommunications carriers which, in turn, want to provide transatlantic end-to-end services. The service is completly digital, although ISDN services will be targetted at big businesses only. Incentives on offer from United include call charges measured in seconds rather than units, fully itemised monthly bills conference calling and fast, localised, installation and customer services. It claims that with its service, users can save up to 20% on its bills. The telephone service will eventually be extended to the whole of Croydon as well as Sutton, Merton, Kingston and Richmond, covering 400,000 homes and businesses. In due course United will also be offering telephony in its five other franchises – Avon, the Medway Towns, the Cotswolds, South Essex and Edinburgh.
