Notice under Section 16(5)(a) and (b) of the Telecommunications Act 1984

1. On 17 August 2001 the Director General published Statutory Consultation on Proposed Modifications to BT’s Licence to give effect to Charge Controls for Single Tandem FRIACO. The proposed modifications to BT’s licence on which the Director General was consulting included adjustments to the charges for a local-tandem circuit (excluding FRIACO port at the tandem exchange) and for a FRIACO port at the tandem switch. These proposed charges were to take effect from 1 October 2001. BT did not object to the proposed modifications and they will therefore be incorporated into BT’s licence as of 1 October 2001.

2. Condition 69.4(b) requires BT to publish a network charge change notice (NCCN) not less than 28 days before it proposes to change a charge for which Condition 69.4(a) and Condition 69.4(c) does not apply. At present, Single Tandem FRIACO is, in effect, considered to be a New Standard Service and this notification requirement therefore applies to it. However, if the charges are to take effect from 1 October 2001 BT is not going to be able to meet this notification requirement. BT also needs to publish NCCNs in order to give effect to charge changes for FRIACO at the local exchange (DLE FRIACO) and FRIACO Hybrid, which are required as a result of the modifications to Condition 69 to give effect to the Network Charge Control regime from 1 October 2001.

3. Exceptionally, in these circumstances, the Director General of Telecommunications would consider that his duties under Section 3 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 preclude the making of an enforcement order under Section 16 of the Act. Additionally, any such contravention of Condition 69.4(b) to give effect to the charges set out in the licence modifications is trivial under Section 16(5)(b) of the Telecommunications Act 1984. The effect of this notice is to allow BT to publish NCCNs setting adjusted charges for Single Tandem FRIACO, DLE FRIACO and FRIACO Hybrid without the otherwise required period of notice. From 1 October 2001 BT is expected to give ninety days’ notification for charge changes to both DLE FRIACO and ST FRIACO, as these services are non-competitive.

DAVID ALBERT EDMONDS

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

27 SEPTEMBER 2001