Ofcom announces its priorities for the coming year
31 Mar 2014 12:25 PM
Ofcom today published
its 2014/15 Annual Plan, confirming its strategy and work programme for
the next financial year. This work is designed to build on some significant
developments in the UK’s communications
infrastructure
Network
rollout
Ofcom will continue to monitor
and promote new network deployment. Superfast broadband is now available to
around three quarters of UK households, and is expected to reach 95% of
premises by 2017. Four national mobile operators are rolling out competing
high-speed 4G services, with most expecting to reach 98% of the population by
next year.
Maintaining
value
While coverage continues to
increase, an important theme in Ofcom’s work for the coming year is the
cost and value of communications services. Ofcom will target areas including
the affordability of core services, such as landline telephone for vulnerable
consumers, and services for disabled consumers. Ofcom published its most recent
work on cost and value in January’s Consumer
Experience report.
Improving
quality
Another theme will be quality of
service, which is increasingly important for consumers. Ofcom is developing new
targets for Openreach, which would mean faster line repairs and installations
for broadband and telephone customers. Ofcom is also working with mobile
operators to improve the information it makes available to consumers on quality
of service, and will publish research on the average mobile broadband speeds
received by 3G and 4G customers.
The work ahead
Ofcom has placed its annual
priorities into the following categories:
- Promote effective
competition and informed choice. Ofcom will continue to focus on
ensuring competition and investment in current and superfast broadband, and
promoting choice for consumers through clear information and efficient
switching processes.
- Secure optimal use of
spectrum. This work will include encouraging spectrum sharing
through new technology such as ‘white spaces’, and delivering
spectrum for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
- Promote opportunities to
participate. Ofcom will seek to ensure the wide availability of
communications services, and to reduce barriers to their adoption and effective
use by consumers. As part of this, Ofcom will focus on its on-going duty to
secure the universal postal service. There will also be work to promote the
provision of better mobile coverage and service information.
- Protect consumers from
harm. Ofcom will continue to manage the reform of non-geographic
telephone numbers, which will bring about clearer phone charges for consumers
and free 080 calls on mobile phones from summer 2015. Ofcom will also work to
protect consumers from harm in areas such as nuisance calls and unexpectedly
high mobile bills.
- Maintain audience
confidence in broadcast content. Ofcom will work with industry
and other regulators to develop a consistent approach to media standards
regulation. Ofcom will also support work to help keep children safe online.
This will include reports for the Government on parental controls and an
assessment of protection measures put in place by internet service
providers.
- Contribute to and
implement public policy defined by Parliament. As part of this, Ofcom
will work to ensure that the European Commission’s ‘Connected
Continent’ proposals support the interests of UK consumers and
citizens.
Ofcom is required by Parliament
to carry out reviews of public service broadcasting (PSB). In 2014/15, Ofcom
will begin its third PSB review, which will consider challenges facing the
industry and assess how the needs of citizens and consumers can best be
delivered. Ofcom expects to publish its conclusions by the summer of
2015.
Achieving value for
money
The work outlined above will be
funded by a mixture of fees collected from the stakeholders Ofcom regulates and
grant-in-aid.
Ofcom’s budget for the
financial year 2014/15 is £117m. Year-on-year this is flat in nominal
terms, and represents a reduction of 2.6% in real terms. The budget will allow
Ofcom to deliver an overall 28.6% real-terms budgetary reduction compared to
2010/11. This exceeds an original commitment following the 2010 Treasury
Spending Review to deliver total budgetary savings of 28.2% by
2014/15.
A summary of Ofcom’s Annual Plan ‘at a
glance’ is available online.
NOTES FOR
EDITORS
- The seven themes of this
year’s Ofcom Annual Plan are: promote effective competition and informed
choice; secure optimal use of spectrum; maintain audience confidence in
broadcast content; availability; quality of service; cost and value; and
adoption. Ofcomconsulted on its work for the coming year in December
2013.
- The ‘gaining provider
led’ switching policy is outlined in this Ofcom news release from
August. It applies to fixed telephony, standard and superfast broadband
delivered over the Openreach copper network.
- For more on the release of MoD
spectrum, see this Ofcom news release from October 2013.
- For more on the reform of
non-geographic call charges, see this Ofcom news releasefrom December 2013.
- Under section 3 (1) of the
Communications Act 2003, Ofcom’s principal duty is to further the
interests of citizens in relation to communications matters and to further the
interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting
competition.