HC Deb 12 July 1983 vol 45 cc301-2W
Mr. Norman Atkinson

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, whether, before the passage of the Telecommunications Bill, he will make a statement on Her Majesty's Government's policy towards the balance between commercial viability and social obligation in the provision of public telephone services.

Mr. Butcher

The Government's policy is to ensure that after the privatisation of British Telecom loss-making but socially essential services, including the 999 emergency service, public call box services, ship-to-shore services and services in remote rural areas should continue to be made available on a secure financial basis.

The Telecommunications Bill therefore imposes duties on the Secretary of State and on the new Director General of Telecommunications to exercise their licensing and other functions in the way best calculated both to secure that these services are provided and to secure that those who provide these services are able to finance them.

The Secretary of State intends to fulfil these two duties by including in the licence to be granted to public telecommunication operators conditions which will ensure that those operators provide emergency 999 services, public call box services, ship-to-shore services and services in rural areas.

The main burden of meeting these obligations will fall on British Telecom and will be met out of profits on other services. In order to ensure that the arrangements are fair the Government intend that the other public tele-communication operators should pay a share of the losses BT incurs on these services through a system of access fees which will be payable when those operators are provided with services by BT.

The Government's policy is to provide a balance between commercial viability and the universal provision of telecommunications services. The Telecommunications Bill therefore imposes a primary duty on the Secretary of State and the Director General of Telecommunications to secure the universal provision of telecommunications services, including emergency services, public call box services, ship-to-shore services and services in rural areas, and to secure that any person providing these services is able to finance their provision. Conditions will be imposed in the licences which the Government will issue to all public telecommunications operators with access to the systems over which these essential services will be provided to contribute towards any losses incurred in their provision. This will ensure that an obligation on a particular licencee to provide loss making but essential services, which the Government are determined to continue, will not be a barrier to fair competition.

Mr. Norman Atkinson

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the average capital cost of installing a public telephone kiosk; and what level of annual takings British Telecom expects to receive in respect of such a kiosk.

Mr. Butcher

This is a detailed matter for the board of British Telecom and I am inviting British Telecom to write to the hon. Member on these points.

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