Ofcom's plans for 2011/12 see significantly reduced remit

Quocirca analyst argues that Ofcom's remit reads like a company's mission statement

Communications regulator Ofcom has outlined its plans for 2011/12, but its significantly reduced remit has prompted one analyst to argue that the organisation is becoming less relevant and a waste of taxpayers' money.

Before the coalition government was formed in May, the Conservatives threatened to scrap Ofcom altogether, and the body's reduced remit is perhaps the result of this original agenda.

"If this draft workplan shows what Ofcom can do with lots of forethought and with its best brains engaged, then everyone involved has a lot to answer for," said Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom.

"It reads more like something a group has been told to come up with as a mission statement for a company."

Ofcom has outlined the following priorities for the next two years:

• Promote effective and sustainable competition
• Promote the efficient use of public assets
• Help communications markets work for consumers
• Provide appropriate assurance to audiences on standards
• Contribute to and implement public policy defined by parliament

With regard to Ofcom helping communications markets work for the consumer, Longbottom insists that this shouldn't be difficult to achieve.

"That's five minutes work: force ISPs to provide actual average bandwidth figures, not maximums; no hidden figures; make 'unlimited' mean unlimited; no 'fair use' clauses," he said.

Ofcom said that these objectives will have to be delivered with a 28.2 per cent saving on its current funding cap over a four-year period, with the majority of the savings delivered over the next two years.

Longbottom said: "The biggest problem is that there are too many bodies around to deal with what's happening in the industry - Ofcom, Otelo and CISAS deal with different issues just on the telecoms side - meaning that little is completely joined up, and lots of time and money is wasted in trying to get people to deal with the right body at the right time. It would be far better to bring everything under the one roof and give the body some real teeth," Longbottom argued.

An Ofcom spokesperson responded to the criticism with the following comment:

"One of Ofcom's statutory duties is to publish a draft annual plan to give stakeholders a chance to comment on our proposed priorities for the coming year. We believe that these priorities reflect the range of important communications issues that the industry faces in the next 12 months, such as promoting competition in super-fast broadband and making it easier for consumers to switch communications provider.

"This year we are doing more with less by reducing our spending significantly in a number of different areas while continuing to deliver the best outcomes for UK consumers and citizens."

On the issue of "making the market work for the consumer", the spokesperson said:

"We have made recommendations to the Advertising Standards Authority and the Committee on Advertising Practice who are currently undertaking reviews.

"One recommendation we have made is that that broadband speeds should only be advertised if at least some consumers are actually able to achieve the advertised speeds, and those who advertise 'up to' speeds, should also include a 'typical speed range' based on a standard currency similar to those in other industries (for example, APR in financial services, and MPG in motoring)."