§ Lord Orr-Ewingasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total estimated cost (capital and revenue) of setting up and running the British Approvals Board for Telecommunications (BABT); and why so far only one new simple telephone has received approval from 49 applications.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead)The total cost of setting up and running the British Approvals Board for Telecommunications (BABT) is estimated to have been £267,000, of which some £45,000 is capital expenditure. It is intended that BABT, a private sector company, should be financed by fees paid by those seeking approvals.
BABT has received a total of 52 applications for approvals of simple telephones. Over half these applications were either withdrawn when the applicants realised that their apparatus would not meet the relevant standards or the applicant has not 108WA yet paid the appropriate fees. In the remainder of cases, testing is now in progress and one item of simple telephone apparatus has been approved.
The low rate of applications arises partly because the standard for simple telephone apparatus was not approved until October 1982, partly from the realisation by potential applications that much foreign apparatus is unsuitable for connection to the public networks in this country and partly because 34 new simple telephones have already been approved under interim schemes arranged by the department.