Ofcoms first 100 days

Ofcom has been going for 100 days in its official industry/media regulator role and on 31st March, Stephen Carter the Ofcom CEO made a speech to the Westminster Media Forum. A full copy of the
speech is on Ofcom’s site here.

In the Broadband section, it is acknowledged that the 12 month Strategic Telecommunications review lasting 12 months is too slow for a fast moving market. Therefore Ofcom is now planning to set
out its overview of the broadband market at the end of April 2004. The main thrust seems to be reviewing the margins in the variety of products, in particular with a view to ensuring Local Loop
Unbundling is an attractive proposition to providers.

To show how far things in the UK have come, back in 1984 there was a queue of 240,000 residential customers waiting on BT to provision a phone line. So things have improved, although at times for
many individuals the UK still looks like a backwater technology wise.