OFTEL faces attack again

“Oftel has allowed itself to fall victim to regulatory capture [by BT]”
– Senior Treasury official

An article in the Financial Times today stated that,

“Downing Street is considering abolishing Oftel and replacing the numerous communications and media regulators with a single authority dubbed Ofcom.”

In the light of the way that the EU courts overruled Oftel’s timeline of ‘Local Loop Unbundling’ (yes, they do have the power to over throw any decision such as this (or any judicial court
decision))- as intent documented by The Independent– this
can only lead me to the conclusion that they are failing to provide to the demands that the industry and the industrys’ consumers are drawing. Maybe the Government will hold off and instead appoint
a new Director General for the Office of Fair Trading of Telecommunications Operators. But abolition could lead to an improvement over the dismantling of Monopolies if to be handled by a more
general Ofcom which could tackle the issue from possibly several angles.

“The UK has relegated itself from the premier league [of European telecoms regulation] to the relegation zone of the second division”
– Olli Rehn, head of cabinet for European information commissioner Erkii Liikanen”

Comments to the message boards please.

Please note that that web based article is not identical to the paper based version.