Oftel vows to harmonise leased line charges

NEWS Oftel has said it expects to see leased line prices drop long before the deadline set by European Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen on Wednesday. The UK regulator said it will speed up the investigation into the leased line market and should have preliminary results by March next year, and BT will be required to reduce its rates accordingly. At the launch of the E-Europe initiative, Liikanen said he wants to advance the time-frame for unbundling the local loop to the end of 2000 and significantly reduce the tariffs of leased lines - in particular cross-border leased lines (see 'EC puts IT at heart of Europe' http://www.silicon.com/a34545 ). A spokesman for Oftel responded: "We will meet with the Commission in January to discuss the UK's timetable for unbundling the local loop, but we intend to stick to the current timetable of July 2001." The Operator's Policy Forum, which is chaired by MCI World Com, will oversee the unbundling strategy in the UK and it would be up to them to speed the process up. However, with leased line pricing Oftel will take Liikanen's directives into account and it intends to meet with other national regulators early next year to discuss harmonising the cross-border pricing.