US Baby Bell Nynex Corp is to start offering local telephone service in the UK before the end of this year, the company announced on Friday. It intends to offer service in all 11 of the cable television franchise areas in which it has a share and will start in Portsmouth and Brighton. In its White Paper last week, the government confirmed that it is to allow cable companies to switch telephony services between non-adjacent franchises and provide their own trunking services between franchises. The Nynex spokeswoman said that ending of the Duopoly had opened up freedom of choice in UK telecommunications and taken with the switching and trunking capabilities allowed to the cable companies, it made the prospect of phone service economically viable. She could not say whether the company had begun any trunking or interconnect negotiations. Nynex has not finished building any networks yet, but the telephony capability is to be built-in. Nynex shares 49% ventures with Cross Country Cable, Britannia Cable and US Cable in 11 areas, which include 1.4m homes.
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