Chapter 2: What level of service?
Chapter 4: Alternatives to disconnection
Chapter 5: Public call box provision
Chapter 6: What does universal service cost?
Chapter 7: The funding of universal service
Chapter 8: Services for disabled people
Chapter 9: The European context
Annex 1: Draft BT licence condition and guidelines for the Lifeline scheme
Annex 2: BT's draft disconnection statement
Annex 3: Draft licence condition and public call box guidelines for BT
See also Detailed explanatory Notes to the Consultative Document
The initial consultation period will run until Friday, 25 April 1997. There will then be a further period up to Friday, 9 May 1997 during which comments are invited on any submissions made to Oftel during the initial period. Comments are invited in particular on the questions highlighted in the text of the document and listed at the end of the Summary.
Written comments should be sent to :
Paul West, Oftel, 50 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JJ. Fax : 0171 634 8893.
Written comments will be made publicly available in Oftel s Library unless confidential. Respondents are therefore asked to separate out any confidential material into a clearly marked annex. Appointments to view written comments in the Library must be made in advance (tel : 0171 634 8762/8765, fax : 0171 634 8946).
Comments can also be sent to Oftel on the Internet via Oftel s Web pages or by using the following email address : press.office.oftel@gtnet.gov.uk
Oftel intends to set up a link between this document on Oftel s Web pages and any comments about it placed on respondents own Internet pages. Please contact Cate MacPherson at Oftel on 0171 634 8752 to organise this.
Visually impaired customers who wish to have access to the text on computer disc should contact Barbara Powell (tel : 0171 634 8773).
Separate copies of the Summary are available on request. Please
contact Elizabeth Watts (tel: 0171 634 8770).
The changes which technological developments and market liberalisation
have wrought on telecoms services are truly staggering. The quality
and choice of products and services is constantly improving. So
much so that it is sometimes difficult to remember what life was
like before these changes.
But as these new opportunities become available to more and more of us, we have a duty to ensure that no one is left behind. We must ensure that no one is needlessly excluded from the social and economic opportunities which modern telecos services provide. Equally, we must ensure that the value of the telecoms network is enhanced for everyone who uses it by ensuring that it covers the whole country. That is what Universal Service is all about.
Three previous rounds of consultation have developed and refined our ideas for the provision of universal service from 1997 onwards. We have looked at how we might increase the number of people connected to the telephone network and at the sorts of services which should be available to them all. We have examined how to ensure that everyone is within convenient reach of a public call box. We have discussed the costs (and the benefits) for telecoms operators in providing these services and have looked at ways of ensuring that any net costs are shared fairly amongst them. We have also looked at the services which ought to be available to specific groups of users such as disabled people.
Oftel has been very encouraged by the level of universal service provided already, through judicious regulation and through competition. The proposals in this document aim to make it even better.
I will be making formal proposals later this year to translate the ideas into actions, but it is not too late to make helpful suggestions. We think that the proposals in this document will help ensure that everyone who wants to can get access to a telephone and to the services and opportunities that go with it. We look forward to hearing your views.
Looking further forward, I am committed to a review of the universal service arrangements in 1999. As with these proposals, I would wish to confirm that the relevant Secretaries of State were content with any revision of the universal services arrangements that might emerge from that review.
Don Cruickshank