Judgment on an appeal by British Telecommunications PLC (“BT”) against a direction issued by the Director General of Telecommunications purporting to resolve a “dispute concerning interconnection” pursuant to regulation 6(6) of the Telecommunications (Interconnection) Regulations 1997 between BT and Vodafone Limited. This appeal was the first appeal to the Tribunal pursuant to section 192 of thecommunications Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”).
The only issue in the case was whether the supply by BT of “Radio Base Station (RBS) backhaul circuits” to Vodafone Limited and O2 (UK) Limited was “interconnection” within the meaning of the Interconnection Directive or the Interconnection Regulations. The Tribunal allowed BT’s appeal and found that the supply by BT of RBS backhaul circuits did not fall within the scope of the of the Interconnection Directive or the Interconnection Regulations and was not analogues to a “leased line” within the meaning of the Interconnection Directive. Pursuant to section 195(2) of the 2003 Act the direction was declared to be without legal effect and was remitted with a direction to OFCOM to take no further action pursuant to the Interconnection Regulations as regards the dispute between BT and Vodafone which formed the subject matter of the direction.
