§ Mr. Peter Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will increase the radio spectrum allocation available to the national radio paging service operated by British Telecommunications.
§ Mr. PattieNot at present, but, in anticipation of growing needs as customer demand expands and services develop, I have earmarked an additional channel for future use by the BT service, subject to the company demonstrating to my satisfaction that it has a commercial need and to any other conditions which are generally applicable at the time. I would expect to seek the advice of the Director General of Telecommunications on these questions. I do not expect the additional channel to be brought into commercial use until BT's competitors have had the opportunity to establish themselves in the market.