HC Deb 12 July 1982 vol 27 cc258-9W
44. Mr. Jim Lester

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he proposes to stipulate the technical configuration of cable television systems or to leave this to individual cable companies.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

This is one of the prime technical questions which the Government are considering. What is clearly essential, should the introduction of wideband cable systems be decided upon, is that the system or systems chosen should be compatible with the BT and Mercury telecommunications networks so that inter-linking would be possible, and that existing UHF television sets should be capable of being used on all systems.