ODE 18-77
To:-
ga
Miss Gray OT2/2D
From:
Peter Doogan
TP2C
Red 2/119
151 Buckingham Palace Road
215 1803
17 April 1991
MAR 124/2
J Reference.
cc Mr Phillips TP2 O/R
Ms Godwin TP2C O/R
The Lead W/29/4
Dr Coś mi
Mr Furness mo
ро
Common
Well well sense at last.
2414
C&W HONG KONG
We spoke of TP's concerns about your draft submission to MfT on the maintenance of C&W's monopoly in Hong Kong. On balance we would prefer you not to proceed with the submission.
If we were to take the line in your submission, of promoting C&W's current position in Hong Kong, it would be very difficult not to appear to be opposing the liberalising thrust of the recent White Paper ("Competition and Choice: Telecommunications Policy for the 1990s") which, inter alia, recommended the ending of the UK telecommunications duopoly and to allow new companies (regardless of nationality) to apply for licences to run telecommunication networks.
In the foreword to the Paper, the Secretary of State said "The UK has one of the most open and dynamic telecommunications markets in the world". Further, in his statement to the House of Commons on 5 March the SoS said "The Government... (has)... also taken steps to make it easier for new companies to enter the market.."; and in response to a question he remarked "We do not intend to deprive our consumers of investments that may be made by overseas companies, but we shall certainly seek to ensure that their Governments open up their markets both within the context of GATT and by means of direct representation...
In the circumstances it would be extremely difficult to
justify supporting C&W's position; to do so could lay us open to charges, from the Hong Kong Government for example, that we were not genuinely pro-competitive.
Peter Decqpar Догра
PETER DOOGAN
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