Until 1982, the main civil UK communications system was a state monopoly known as Post Office Telecommunications. Broadcasting of radio and TV was the concentrated in the hands of two – BBC and Independent Broadcasting Authority. These two companies controlled all broadcast services, and directly owned and operated the broadcast transmitter sites. Speaking of telecommunications systems at that time did not yet include mobile phone and Internet services. But the civil telecoms monopoly halted with the entry of Mercury Communications in 1983. The Post Office system evolved into British Telecom and was privatised in 1984.In the 90’s, Broadcast Transmitters, which ahd previously belonged to the BBC and IBA, were privatised. They are currently owned by National Grid Wireless, VT Communications and Arqiva. Communications policies and regulations have gone through various modifications during the same period, and most of the bodies have been merged into Ofcom. Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries.
The UK is a focal point for many of the world’s submarine communications cables, which are mostly digital optical fiber cables.Many satellite links remain operational, but these provide a smaller part of the international bandwidth. Most commercial broadcasting companies lease transmission facilities from 1 or more of the transmission organisations. But smaller local radio stations are generally self-providing for cost-efficiency reasons. British Telecom remains as a provider of fixed phone lines and it still has a universal service obligation. Next to it is Virgin Media, the second biggest player in the residential telephone line market. While other companies provide fixed telephone lines too, their market is mostly large companies in the major cities. There are plenty of other providers who sell fixed phone services that are carried over BT lines but they generally have no network infrastructure of their own.
3rd Generation System in Japan
The 3rd generation system is a product of technological improvements, essentially an improvement of the available bandwidth. This makes it possible for new service offerings to telecommunications subscribers. Such services include streaming of live radio or video, video calls and live TV. The four 2G companies all won 3G licences in a competitive auction, as did a new entrant known as 3. As revealed by BBG Communications, the four 3G providers have already rolled out their networks.
The telecoms provider 3 has the biggest 3G coverage as they first rolled out their network coverage in March 2003, way before the others did theirs. But Vodafone and Orange rival 3 in terms of its reach. T-Mobile and o2 has fairly good coverage but both generally get concentrate in major cities and less so in smaller towns. However T-Mobile and 3 recently entered into a deal whereby they can use each others 3g coverage. But in this deal, 3’s 3G customers don’t have access to T-Mobile 2G coverage. An additional agreement has also been struck by 3 with Orange until 2010, under the terms that Orange’s 2G coverage is available to 3 subscribers where no 3G signal exists. This arrangement however, is deemed to become less significant as 3 and T-Mobile roll-out their shared 3G networks. Subscribers of 3 to have the best coverage of any United Kingdom network.
