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DETERMINATION

1. The Secretary of State has granted licences to particular persons ('the Licensees') under section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 ('the Act') to run telecommunications systems. Those licences contain a condition ('the Licence Condition') requiring the Licensees to pay to the Secretary of State certain fees at certain specified times.

2. Certain of the Licensees who have held a licence under section 7 of the Act for more than two years and who have a Licensable Turnover (as defined in the Director's Statement of August 1999 'Statement on the revised licence fee regime' ('the Statement')) of £5 million or more ('the Relevant Licensees') are liable to pay:

2.1 a renewal fee on 1st April of each year representing a fair proportion, as determined by the Director in accordance with the method set out in the Statement, of the estimated costs to be incurred in that fiscal year by the Director in the regulation and enforcement of telecommunication licences and in the exercise of his other relevant functions under the Act and

2.2 when the Director so determines, a special fee on the 1st January which shall represent a fair proportion, to be determined by the Director according to the method that has been disclosed to the Licensee in the Statement, of the amount by which, amongst other things, the costs estimated to have been incurred already in that fiscal year by the Competition Commission following licence modification references made by the Director under section 13 of the Act ('the Costs') exceeds the renewal fee and providing that the aggregate of the renewal fee and the special fee does not exceed 0.08% of the Licensable Turnover in the financial year before the last complete financial year of the Relevant Licensee before the 31st March 2002 ('the Relevant Turnover').

3. The relevant Licensees have now been advised by the Director of the amount of that renewal fee which they are required to pay in the current fiscal year.

4. The Competition Commission has advised the Director that the Costs which it estimates to have incurred in the current fiscal year are £1,790,406 (one million seven hundred and ninety thousand four hundred and six pounds); and

NOW THEREFORE THE DIRECTOR, PURSUANT TO THE LICENCE CONDITION, HEREBY DETERMINES THAT-

(i) the amount by which the Costs exceeds the renewal fee of the Relevant Licensees is the said sum of £1,790,406;

(ii) a special fee representing a fair proportion of the sum of £1,790,406 is to be paid by the Relevant Licensees to the Secretary of State on 1st January 2003;

(iii) the fair proportion shall be calculated in accordance with the method set out in the Director's "Statement on the revised licence fee regime" and shall represent a sum relative to the respective Licensable Turnover of the Relevant Licensees; and

(iv) the aggregate of the renewal fee and the special fee does not exceed 0.08% of the Relevant Turnover.

Peter Waller

A person authorised in that
behalf under paragraph 8 of
Schedule 1 to the Act

20th December 2002