CMA launches Telecoms Manifesto

CMA calls for more focus on ICT

At the start of its annual conference today, the Communications Management Association (CMA) launched a five-point action plan that it said is vital to kick-starting the UK economy.

The membership body for the communications industry is calling for converged ICT policy-making by the government, in contrast to the current situation which the CMA said is spread between many Whitehall departments and suffers from a lack of continuity and stability in ministerial appointments.

“Disjointed government policies, a weak regulator and a negative, lethargic approach to local provision of infrastructure and services could leave British competitiveness, enterprise and innovation trailing other G8 countries,” said CMA chairwoman Carolyn Kimber.

The CMA also pointed out that UK communications regulator Ofcom is undertaking activities best left to government, while being “visibly under-resourced and over-stretched”.

The association also said the UK needs a new Communications Act, recognising not just the citizen, but the business user.

The third point of the plan echoes Lord Carter’s interim Digital Britain report, calling for everyone to have universal access to next-generation broadband to ensure “real, effective and sustainable competition in the supply of IT goods and services”.

On the issue of mobile communications, the CMA plan calls for coverage to be extended to span 95 per cent of the UK's geographical area. “3G operators have not met their coverage requirements imposed as part of the auction process,” said the CMA.

Finally, the organisation wants government reassurances that over the coming five years it will “actively support and encourage” the European Commission’s strategy towards a single IT market across the 27 member states.