A light telecom regulatory touch may not be right for consumers, ...
A light telecom regulatory touch may not be right for consumers, the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) Consumer Panel said Thurs. in its first annual report. The communications market is a “daunting and confusing experience” for many people who…
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find it hard to keep up with the rate of change and who worry about costs, the panel said. It’s not a small matter, it said: In 2003, the last year for which data are available, U.K. households spent more than Pounds 20 billion ($38 billion) on communications. While a free market may cut costs and boost innovation, consumers need access to ready, cheap and available information. The panel said it’s watching “very carefully” implementation of Ofcom’s professed intent to take a light regulatory approach, since that may not be the right way to correct market failure. Ofcom should be ready and able to intervene when markets don’t perform in consumers’ interests, the group said. Interested parties have raised key questions about access, or the lack of it, to communications services arising because of where people live or who they are, the panel said. These “issues about people as citizens” -- such as some groups’ vulnerability in the switchover to digital TV -- technically stand outside the panel’s mandate but it will continue to consider them. This year the panel pursued 5 issues: Digital switchover, Ofcom’s strategic review of telecom, universal service, mis-selling in fixed line telecommunications and premium rate services.