§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade whether there is a deliberative process within the EC's current policy formulation within the field of telecommunications that might lead to the standardisation of plugs and sockets for the connection of consumer equipment to(a) the public switched telephone network, (b) the integrated services digital network and (c) the public data networks.
§ Mr. McLoughlinI can confirm that deliberative processes on possible standardisation of plugs and sockets are at different stages depending on the network and method of access used. For(a), the public switched telephone network, study by the Commission and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute remains at the information-gathering stage. On (b), requirements for direct attachment to the integrated services digital network have been technically defined prior to final adoption. For (c), any public data networks not covered by (a) and (b) above, there is much less clear agreement at the European level on the extent to which public data networks should be harmonised and deliberative processes have not advanced to any extent so far.