§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the providers of telecommunications services will be able to negotiate bulk tariffs with the licenced operators of telecommunications systems under clause 8 of the Telecommunications Bill.
§ Mr. ButcherYes. They will be able to do so, but such tariffs will have to be published under the provisions of clause 8(1)(d) of the Telecommunications Bill. In accordance with this clause, condition 16 of the BT draft licence, which was published on 25 October, requires BT to publish the charges, terms and conditions, or the method adopted for their determination, applying to the services it provides under the licence. It is intended to include a similarly worded condition in all licences to be granted to those persons to be designated as public telecommunications operators.