§ Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he has considered further the provision of services by the specialised satellite service operators.
§ Mr. ForthI am pleased to announce that the United Kingdom's seven specialised satellite services operators will be permitted to provide satellite-based telecommunication services in Europe as well as the United Kingdom. I have also decided to issue licences under the Telecommunications Act allowing greater flexibility in the running of receive-only satellite dishes by the seven operators and by broadcasters.
The seven operators will now be permitted to provide one-way point to multipoint satellite services of all kinds within Europe as well as the United Kingdom. This will allow them to provide, for example, a simultaneous data or video distribution service to all the European offices of a company.
This reflects the growth of liberalisation in Europe, and puts the United Kingdom in a good position to take advantage of any further changes which take place. The United Kingdom remains in the vanguard of European telecoms liberalisation, and I hope that the operators will now go out and sell innovative and competitive services in the single market which will be with us in 1992.
Two new licences are also to be issued allowing particular groups of people to pass on signals received from satellites beyond the premises on which the reception dish is sited.
The first will allow the seven specialised satellite services operators to receive signals from satellites at their main uplink sites and then retransmit them. The second licence will allow both sound and vision broadcasters to receive material from satellites, whether uplinked in the United Kingdom or overseas, at their studio and retransmit it over their broadcast networks.
These changes arise from particular limitations which the operators have found under the current arrangements. They will allow satellites to be used to provide a wider range of services, especially from locations where it is not easy to use ordinary telecommunications equipment. The new licences will ensure that satellite-based services can be of use to a larger number of companies, particularly the broadcasters, without moving away from the basis of the original terms on which they were liberalised in 1988.
§ Mr. BaldryTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he has received the Director General of 169W Telecommunications' report on British Telecom's arrangements for the provision of space segment capacity on behalf of the new specialised satellite service providers; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ForthIn his report, published today, the director general has concluded that British Telecom's arrangements for dealing with the specialised satellite operators, through its signatory affairs office, will, if properly followed, be fair and impartial. I am pleased that the director general has been able to give this assurance which is essential to the specialised satellite service operators as they begin to develop their businesses. These arrangements are to be reviewed at the end of next year and in the meantime the director general has undertaken to investigate any complaints that they are not working fairly.
The director general has also concluded that it would be more satisfactory if end-users were able to deal directly with the international satellite consortia. This would require changes in the Intelsat and Eutelsat operating agreements which may be achieved in the longer term. I have written to the director general to welcome his report and its conclusions. I have placed copies of the report in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.