Don Cruickshank, the Director General of Oftel, said last night on BBC Radio 5 that the Labour Party’s plan to get BT to build a national information superhighway would create an unnecessary monopoly.
He said he believed in the aim of linking schools to the superhighway, but that schools should have a choice, and should not be obliged to use BT. He said it would be possible to deliver a universal service on the superhighway without giving BT the monopoly of supply.
Current rules mean that telecommunications companies cannot provide broadcast entertainment services, although cable companies can provide telephony services. The government will review this in 2001; under Blair’s deal the telecoms companies will be allow phased access to the entertainment market from the election of a labour government. Cable companies have been given the exclusive rights to provide entertainment to encourage the new cable market.
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