Ref:  54/00
Date: 25 July 2000

Oftel welcomed the new streamlined procedures for amending telecoms licences under the Electronic Communications Act 2000, which comes into force today.

The Act allows the Director General of Telecommunications to modify individual licences without the need for consent if individual licensees do not formally object. Previously, he was required to obtain the formal consent of all individual licensees to a proposed licence modification. As some licences are held by hundreds of telecoms operators, this was a slow process.

The Act also gives the Director General a new power to modify individual licences without the need for consent if he decides that a proposed change is deregulatory. A modification is deregulatory where the effect of the proposed modifications would be to remove or reduce a regulatory burden on the licensee without removing any necessary protection or unduly disadvantaging any competing licence holder.

Using these new powers, Oftel is proposing two such deregulatory changes: to amend the individual licences of all public telecoms operators to align them with recent changes in the licences of BT and Concert, and to remove the Fair Trading Condition, present in all licences, which has been replaced by provisions in the Competition Act 1998.

Commenting on the new procedures for amending telecoms licences, Director General David Edmonds said:

"Oftel welcomes these new powers. They will make the licence modification process more efficient, thus enabling us to bring about change more rapidly.

"The new powers will assist our commitment to stepping back from regulation where it is no longer needed, as outlined in Oftel’s strategy.

"The proposed licence changes ensure consistency with changes already made to BT’s and Concert’s licences following Oftel’s review of Competition in International Markets. The proposed removal of the Fair Trading Condition will serve to make licences simpler and clearer."

Statutory consultation on the proposed licence modifications will commence on 28 July 2000 and will be notified in the London Gazette, Belfast Gazette and Edinburgh Gazette.

Notes to editors

1. Sections 7, 11 and 12 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 came into force today. The Act and Explanatory Notes can be purchased from The Stationery Office and are also available on the HMSO website at http://www.uk-legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts.htm.
2. Section 11 of the Electronic Communications Act 2000 amends section 12 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 governing modification of licences by the Director General and inserts a new section 12A.

3. The Director General is proposing to modify condition 47.6 of all public telecommunications operator (PTO) licences (except those of BT and Concert) to create separate price publication notice periods for Competitive Standard Services, on the one hand, and Prospectively Competitive Standard Services and new Standard Services, on the other. The price publication notice period for Competitive Standard Services would be reduced from 28 days to one day. Condition 47 only applies to operators with Significant Market Power (SMP) for the purposes of the Interconnection Directive. It is also proposed that PTO licences would be modified to allow the Director General to vary the notice period required by Condition 55.4. Broadly, Condition 55 applies only to licensees determined by the Director General as having SMP in respect of a Relevant Private Circuit Market.

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