Oftel

NOTICE UNDER SECTION 12(2) OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT 1984

PROPOSED MODIFICATION TO THE LICENCE OF NATIONAL TRANSCOMMUNICATIONS LTD

1. The Director General of Telecommunications (the “Director”), in accordance with section 12(2) of the Telecommunications Act 1984, as amended by the Electronic Communications Act 2000 (the “Act”), hereby gives notice that he proposes to make a modification to the licence granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of that Act on 20 December 1990 to National Transcommunications Ltd (“ntl”) to run telecommunication systems for the provision of television and radio transmission services. 2. The effect of the proposed modification to ntl’s above-mentioned licence is to formally extend the price control period until the end of 2003 (as that period currently refers to full calendar years, but see below-mentioned reason for making the proposed modification) for the purposes of Condition 8 of that licence. The modification would therefore take the form of replacing the definition of “Relevant Year” in paragraph 8.10 of Condition 8 with a new definition in which the control period ends with the calendar year of 2002. 3. The reason for the proposed modification is that analogue terrestrial transmission regulation is among the areas of Oftel’s work which comes under the new EU regulatory framework (see: the Framework Directive (2002/21/EC), Authorisation Directive (2002/20/EC), Access Directive (2002/19/EC) and the Universal Service Directive (2002/22/EC), published on 24 April 2002 in the Official Journal of the European Communities, which can be viewed at: http://europa.eu.int/information society/topics/telecoms/regulatory/new rf/index/en en.htm). In order to implement the Directives in the UK, it will be necessary to undertake a market review of terrestrial analogue transmission, where Oftel presently operates a price control. The present price control operating between ntl, Channels 3, 4 and 5, and S4C is due to terminate on 31 December 2002. However, the Directives shall be implemented into UK legislation and applied from 25 July 2003. To avoid the necessity of undertaking a price control review followed in short order by the market review, or the risk of a hiatus in the price control, the Director proposes to extend the ntl price control to cover the period up to July 2003. He considers that the most appropriate and straightforward means to achieve this is through extending the control in the above-mentioned way. 4. The consultation procedure comprises two stages. In the first stage, representations on or objections to the proposed modification[s] may be made to: Margaret Doherty, Oftel, 50 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JJ (telephone 020 7634 8828, e-mail margaret.doherty@oftel.gov.uk) by no later than 4 November 2002. 5. Any confidential information should be clearly marked as such and separated out into a confidential annex. All representations received by Oftel, with the exception of material marked confidential, will be made available for inspection in Oftel’s Research and Intelligence Unit and may be published. 6. In the second stage, interested parties are invited to send comments to Margaret Doherty, details as above, by no later than 15 November 2002 on representations or objections received in the first stage. 7. In accordance with section 12(6D) of the Act, representations made against the proposed modification shall be taken to constitute an objection only if a written statement that they are to be so taken accompanies them. 8. Copies of the proposed modification can be obtained from Margaret Doherty, details as above.