Next Ofcom boss urged to show teeth

Industry leaders say Stephen Carter's successor should follow his lead in promoting competition

Stephen Carter will receive a good send-off when his reign as Ofcom chief executive ends in a few months, although some would like to see his successor stand up more for smaller ISPs.

Carter’s imminent departure from the communications watchdog was confirmed last week with many commentators praising his performance in driving through local-loop unbundling and taking a liberal attitude to spectrum allocation.

In a statement, Ofcom chairman David Currie said, "Stephen took on an immensely challenging task and has performed outstandingly. His legacy is an effective and credible organisation which plays an important role in delivering greater choice, lower prices and greater innovation."

Carter said he was leaving at a time when Ofcom is “firmly established [and] broadband and digital competition are delivering real results”.

Carter was Ofcom’s first chief after Oftel was disbanded to make way for a regulator overseeing broadcasting as well as telecoms. Now, experts are calling for his successor to continue the work and push for more competition.

A spokeswoman for service provider Tiscali said, "Stephen Carter has presided over a change of regime from Oftel to Ofcom that has been good for the telecoms industry in general. Ofcom has tackled issues of competition at a pretty strategic level. We now hope and expect to see continuity of effort and purpose to see the objectives of the Telecoms Strategic Review through to conclusion and we certainly don't expect to see the removal of regulation, as BT is, and will remain, such a dominant player."

After a fractious relationship with Oftel, BT has enjoyed a good dialogue with Carter’s Ofcom.

"Stephen has changed the landscape of telecoms regulation in Britain,” said BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen. “His commercial experience, judgment and professionalism have been fundamental in helping to give Britain the most competitive and innovative telecoms market in the world. He has helped focus regulation on the parts of the market that need it, allowing greater competition to flourish."

Although Ofcom has made no announcement yet and will conduct an internal and external search for candidates, the hot favourite to replace Carter is current Ofcom chief operating officer Ed Richards, a former corporate strategy manager at the BBC and advisor to Gordon Brown.

The OfcomWatch web site describes him as a “shoo in” for the job, while The Times, which broke the story of Carter’s decision to move, noted that Richards had recently been on a Harvard management course.