Public Telecommunications Systems Licensing

Operators of public telecommunications systems in the UK require a licence issued by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under the Telecommunications Act 1984. In order to facilitate the installation and maintenance of these systems the Act provides that the Secretary of State in issuing a licence may grant some operators special rights and obligations. These are set out in Schedule 2 of the 1984 Act, known as 'the telecommunications code' and hence these operators are commonly known as Code System Operators.