BACK TO THE FUTURE - BRITAIN 19TH-CENTURY TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY

In seeking to answer the question of why there is no consensus in the UK on the concept of 'universal service' in the 1990s, this article go es back to the beginnings of the telephone. It argues that the diffusi on of the telephone was heavily influenced by the preceding experience of the postal and telegraph services. It finds that the Treasury in c oalition with large users determined tariff structures. Flat-rate tari ffs and cost-based pricing resulted in cross-subsidization from small to large users and from local to long-distance service. Historically, there has been no commitment to universal service.