European telecommunications roundup

Today, the telecommunication issue in Europe is possibly the most important influence in the growth and establishment of the on‐line information market in that region. Europe is behind the USA in developing cheap, publicly available switched dial‐up networks on demand such as Tymnet and Telenet in America. The situation is complicated by the different regulations in each country and by the monopoly status afforded to the PTTs, the European postal, telegraph and telephone agencies. In Europe, it is illegal for a third party to access a network leased to any two parties. Thus, a circuit leased to Tymshare for communicating with its computers in Europe or the United States cannot be sold by Tymshare to any other party, although such ‘illegal’ access has been tolerated by the PTTs for some time. A number of PTTs, however, are now ‘legalizing’ the traffic by controlling third party access to Tymshare's nodes in Europe. As usual, the consumer has to pick up the tab for the added circuits, equipment, billing and overhead required for such control. It might be that, as the European countries develop their own networks, they will be motivated to encourage traffic by reducing charges and simplifying access. In the meantime On‐Line Review will monitor the scene which should really be the concern of the telecommunications experts, leaving our readers to get on with the business of accessing information efficiently and without restrictions. Here are some European telecommunications news items.