It was also at this time that the first steps were taken to introduce competition into the United Kingdom telecommunications industry. In particular, British Telecom lost its monopoly of the supply of customer premises equipment (CPE) except, as an interim measure, providing the first telephone at an address. In practice, it had become increasingly difficult in the years leading up to the Act to exercise this monopoly as more and more unauthorised equipment was added to the network.
The Act introduced an independent approval regime for CPE. Before 1981, the Post Office and then British Telecom had alone decided what could and could not be connected to its network. The 1981 Act established an independent procedure to set standards and approve equipment for connection to the network. Standards were now set by the British Standards Institution (BSI), while the British Approvals Board for Telecommunications (BABT) issued approvals based on independent evaluations. This was the first step in separating regulatory and operational activities which was essential if private suppliers were to be able to compete with BT on equal terms.
The 1981 Act permitted further liberalisation by allowing network competition. The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry was empowered to grant licences to operators other than BT to provide network and value added services. This was a recommendation of the Beesley Report, published in April this year, which suggested full freedom for private suppliers to use the national network to provide Value Added Network Services (VANS) at a flat rate.
Then in 1984, as the market was getting saturated with company's wanting to get a piece of the telecommunication market, some said that there was a need for a regulator, and some ground rules. This is where the Telecommunications Act 1984 was brought in. The 1984 Act, in addition to providing for the privatisation of British Telecom, abolished the exclusive privilege of running telecommunications systems and established a framework to safeguard the workings of competition.
