ABSTRACT
On 21 July 1980, the Secretary of State for Industry, Sir Keith Joseph, announced to Parliament the government’s proposals for relaxing British Telecommunications’ monopoly. During his statement he said,
We are going to allow people more freedom to use British Telecommunications’ circuits to offer services to third parties which are not currently provided by British Telecommunications, for example in the data processing field. I expect this change to lead to a significant growth in information, data transmission, educational and entertainment services provided over telephone circuits and to the emergence of new business. I have also decided to commission an independent economic assessment of the implications of allowing complete liberalisation for what are commonly referred to as value added network services.
