§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if section 15 of the British Telecom draft licence authorises simple resale.
§ Mr. ButcherNo. Simple resale of capacity on a private circuit leased from British Telecom (BT) would24W involve the running of a separate telecommunications system the operator of which would require a separate licence.
If the Secretary of State, or the Director General of Telecommunications acting with the consent or in accordance with an authority of the Secretary of State, were to grant a licence which permitted the operator to resell capacity on private circuits, condition 13 of the draft BT licence would oblige BT to connect its systems to the resale operator's system and condition 15 would oblige BT to allow the operator to provide resale services when the operator's system was connected to the BT systems. These arrangements ensure that at the time when the Government license simple resale BT will be obliged to co-operate.