The British Telecommunications is a public corporation established under the British Telecommunications Act, 1981. The 1981 Act has made provisions relating to its functions of the British Telecommunications. BT has been designated as the provider of universal service of electronic communications networks in the UK, barring the Hull area. The Universal Service Obligation conditions have been imposed on BT which addresses issues such as the provision of access to the telephone network, schemes for consumers with special social needs and public call box services. Some individual providers (that have been designated as having Significant Market Power) have also been imposed with additional obligations. In a number of markets, BT has been designated with Significant Market Power (SMP). During the review of the UK telecommunications market by the Office of Communication, BT proposed a set of commitments in the form of Undertakings under the Enterprise Act which was accepted by the Office of Communication and came into force in September 2005. The proposed Undertakings are legal in nature. In case of breach of any of these Undertakings, the Office of Communication can compel compliance through legal proceedings. There is an alternative procedure contained in the Undertakings according to which the Office of Communication can issue BT with a direction. The BT Undertakings sought to establish a new access services division and create an Equality of Access Board (EAB) to supervise and submit report on BT's compliance with the Undertakings and the code of practice. http://www.bt.com/
