Notice under Section 12(6A) of the Telecommunications Act 1984

Modifications to the licence of British Telecommunications plc

(2001/C 299/06)

1. On 22 June 1984, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry granted a licence (the "Licence") to British Telecommunications plc ("BT") under Section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 (the "Act") for the running of telecommunications systems specified in Annex A to the Licence.

2. On 27 September 2001, the Director-General of Telecommunications (the "Director"), in exercise of the powers conferred to him by Sections 12 and 12(A) of the Act, with effect from the date specified in the instrument of modification, modified Condition 69 of the Licence.

3. In accordance with Section 12(6A) of the Act, the Director hereby gives notice that his reason for making the modifications is because BT has market power in the provision of flat-rate Internet access call origination ("Friaco") between its local and tandem exchanges, and thus competition is not effective.

4. The effect of the abovementioned modifications will therefore be to set charges for and to bring under regulatory control the charges for Friaco at the tandem exchange, by incorporating the charge for Friaco at the tandem exchange into the network charge controls from October 2001.