The Telecommunications (Services for Disabled Persons) Regulations 2000

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Telecommunications (Services for Disabled Persons) Regulations 2000 and shall come into force on 2nd October 2000.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Telecommunications Act 1984(1);

“BT” means British Telecommunications plc;

“BT Cellnet” means Telecom Securicor Radio Limited;

“the BT licence” means the licence granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Act to British Telecommunications on 22nd June 1984 in relation to which BT became the licensee as the nominated successor company on the transfer date(2) as modified by the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (British Telecommunications plc) Regulations 1999(3);

“the cable and local delivery operator licences” means the licences granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Act to the persons specified in Schedules 1 and 2 to the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (Cable and Local Delivery Operator Licences) Regulations 1999(4) as modified by those Regulations, and any other licences granted after the coming into force of the aforementioned Regulations and subject to substantially the same terms and conditions as the aforementioned licences;

“the fixed voice telephony and international facilities operator licences” means the licences granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Act to the persons specified in Schedules 1 and 2 to the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (Fixed Voice Telephony and International Facilities Operator Licences) Regulations 1999(5) as modified by those Regulations and any other licences granted after the coming into force of the aforementioned Regulations and subject to substantially the same terms and conditions as the aforementioned licences;

“the Kingston licence” means the licence granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Act to Kingston Communications (Hull) PLC on 30th November 1987 as modified by the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (Kingston Communications (Hull) PLC) Regulations 1999(6);

“the mobile licences” means the licences granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Act to each of BT Cellnet on 22nd March 1994, to Dolphin Telecommunications Limited (formerly known as TetraLink Telecommunications Limited) on 12th December 1997, to One2One on 9th May 1995, to Orange Personal Communications Services Limited on 27th July 1995 and to Vodafone Limited on 9th December 1993 and, in the case of each licence, as modified by the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (Mobile Public Telecommunication Operators) Regulations 1999(7);

“One2One” means Mercury Personal Communications Limited; and

“the payphone operator licences” means the licences granted by the Secretary of State under section 7 of the Act to Infolines Public Network Limited and NWP Communications Limited, both dated 31st August 2000.

Amendment to the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (Standard Schedules) Regulations 1999

3.  Schedule 1 to the Telecommunications (Licence Modification) (Standard Schedules) Regulations 1999(8) shall be amended as follows:

(a) in the definition of “Directory Information Service” in paragraph 1 of Part 1 there shall be inserted after “Conditions 2” the number “, 25”;

(b) in Condition 2, paragraph 9 shall be deleted and paragraph 10 shall be renumbered 9;

(c) for Condition 25 there shall be substituted the Condition set out in Schedule 1 hereto; and

(d) in paragraph 11 of Condition 64, for the words “Supply and Connection of Apparatus for Disabled People” there shall be substituted the words “Services for Disabled Persons”.

Modification of licences to include the Services for Disabled Persons condition

4.—(1) In the Table of Contents of the fixed voice telephony and international facilities operator licences, the cable and local delivery operator licences and the mobile licences, for the words “25. Supply and Connection of Apparatus for Disabled People” there shall be substituted the words “25. Services for Disabled Persons”.

(2) The BT Licence shall be modified as follows:

(a) in the Table of Contents, for the words “25. Supply and Connection of Apparatus for Disabled People” there shall be substituted the words “25. Services for Disabled Persons”;

(b) in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 1—

(i) in the definition of “Directory Information Service” there shall be inserted after “Conditions 2” the number “, 25”;

(ii) the definition of “Fault Repair Service” shall be deleted;

(c) in Condition 68, paragraphs 3 and 5 shall be deleted and paragraphs 4, 6 and 7 shall be renumbered 3, 4 and 5 respectively; and

(d) in the renumbered paragraph 5 of Condition 68, for the definition of “textphone” there shall be substituted the following:

““textphone” means an integrated terminal incorporating an alphanumeric keyboard and a means of displaying text, intended for connection to the public switched telephone network for the sole or primary purpose of supporting live telephone conversations between two or more users.”

(3) The Kingston Licence shall be modified as follows:

(a) in the Table of Contents, for the words “25. Supply and Connection of Apparatus for Disabled People” there shall be substituted the words “25. Services for Disabled Persons”;

(b) in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 1, the definition of “Fault Repair Service” shall be deleted; and

(c) in Condition 25 (as substituted by virtue of regulation 3(c) above), for paragraph 13(b) there shall be substituted the following:

“not later than 2nd October 2002, ensure that at least 50% of its Public Call Boxes are accessible by reasonable means to users in wheelchairs;”.

(4) The payphone operator licences shall be modified as follows:

(a) in the Table of Contents, for the words “10. Supply and Connection of Apparatus for Disabled People” there shall be substituted the words “10. Services for Disabled Persons”; and

(b) for Condition 10 there shall be substituted the Condition set out in Schedule 2 hereto.

Patricia Hewitt,

Minister of State for Small Business and E-Commerce,

Department of Trade and Industry

6th September 2000