Home > About Ofcom > Corporate Structure and Governance > Advisory Committees for the Nations > Advisory Committee for N Ireland > Notes of meetings > 15 December 2005

04|04|06

Minutes of the Eighth meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland

Members Present:

Wallace Ewart – Chairman

Sinead Boyle

Carol Burrows

Brian Collins

Mags Connolly

David Elliott

Michael McKernan

Jane Morrice

Leslie Orr

Gerard Parr

Glyn Roberts

Apologies:

Rosemary Kelly Content Board Member for Northern Ireland

Kevin McLaughlin Ofcom Consumer Panel

Una Murphy Member of the Committee

In attendance:

Freya Guinness Ofcom, London

Graham Howell Ofcom, London

Jonathan Hanna Ofcom, Northern Ireland

Joanne McMullan Ofcom, Northern Ireland

Chinyelu Onwurah Ofcom, London

Claudio Pollack Ofcom, London

Denis Wolinski Ofcom, Northern Ireland

Other Ofcom colleague (name withheld from published minutes)

1. Apologies

1.1 Wallace Ewart welcomed all present to the eighth meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland and registered apologies for Una Murphy, Rosemary Kelly and Kevin McLaughlin.

2. Minutes of the last meeting

2.1 The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

3. Matters arising

3.1 Sinead Boyle gave the Committee an update on Ofcom’s Strategy Away Day, held in October.

3.2 Jane Morrice asked to make a declaration of interest and informed the Committee that she was taking up a guest presenter slot on U105. Leslie Orr also declared that he was helping BT Northern Ireland in the planning of their 21 st Century Network.

4. Director’s Report

4.1 Denis Wolinski presented his Director’s Report.

4.2 Members asked to be kept informed of any changes in the next set of RAJAR figures, reflecting the two new entrants to the Northern Ireland radio market.

Action: JMcM to ensure that RAJAR figures are circulated when available.

4.3 Members also showed interest in the new compliance arrangements for BT Northern Ireland and asked if it might be possible to get reports from BT’s new Northern Ireland compliance committee. It was suggested that a representative from BT Northern Ireland should be asked to attend a future meeting of the Committee. Members agreed to compile a short list of questions to be submitted to BT Northern Ireland in advance of any meeting.

Action: Members to compile list of questions. Ofcom NI to invite BT to attend a future Committee meeting.

4.4 Brian Collins indicated that he would be preparing a submission to Ofcom’s consultation on the persistent misuse of electronic services, the closing date for which was January 9.

Action: Brian to circulate submission to the Committee in advance of January 9.

4.5 Committee members were asked to consider joining the existing sub-group on the Nations and Regions Audit. Workshops on the project would be held at the end of January. Both David Elliott and Wallace Ewart indicated an interest.

5. Ofcom Contact Centre

5.1 A report was tabled from the Ofcom Contact Centre detailing activity for the last three months.

6. Annual Plan

6.1 Freya Guinness gave a presentation on Ofcom’s Annual Plan.

6.2 It was agreed that members would submit comments on each of the nine priorities outlined in the presentation. These would then be collated into a final submission by a sub-group consisting of Glyn Roberts and Brian Collins. A general discussion then followed, a summary of which is contained in the points below.

Action: Members to send comments to Glyn/Brian by January 10.

6.3 Members welcomed the intention to examine internet and platform developments and suggested that a key priority in this area was the protection of vulnerable groups.

6.4 The move towards spectrum liberalisation was welcomed. An example of this was the recent decision to jointly award with ComReg spectrum in the 1785 – 1805 band. Members felt it was important that spectrum was sold on a ‘lose it or use it’ basis and suggested that revenue raised from the sale of spectrum could be ring-fenced to finance innovation. Freya Guinness pointed out that this would be a decision for the Treasury.

6.5 On the implementation of the Telecoms Strategic Review members asked if it was possible to identify some benchmarks against which to measure BT’s success in addressing the undertakings.

6.6 With regard to reducing and targeting regulation, the Committee questioned whether Ofcom should be aiming for ‘better regulation’ rather than continued ‘de-regulation’.

6.7 It was suggested that a Universal Service Obligation should be applied to the rollout of next generation telecoms networks.

6.8 Committee members stressed that the protection of children and other vulnerable groups should be a priority in each aspect of the Annual Plan work. Denis Wolinski pointed out that this was one of Ofcom’s underlying regulatory principles.

6.9 There was discussion on Ofcom’s role with regard to consumer protection – members felt that greater clarification was needed about where consumers could go for advice and to complain. The need for greater levels of media literacy was also highlighted.

7. Strategic Review of Numbering

7.1 Chinyeluh Onwurah gave a presentation on the Strategic Review of Numbering.

7.2 The Committee discussed having a single short code national emergency/disaster number; the potential for a short dialling code between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; the possibility of raising revenue by auctioning personal numbers; the importance of not changing the dialling plan too often; and the need for consumers to have clear information on the costs associated with the various types of numbers.

8. Alternative Dispute Resolution

8.1 An Ofcom colleague gave a presentation on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

8.2 The Committee again stressed that consumers need more clarification about how and to whom they should complain .

8.3 The Committee was told that there would be a workshop in London at the end of January at which a new website giving quality of service statistics on telecoms companies would be tested for usability. A representative of the Committee was very welcome to attend. Brian Collins indicated that he would be interested in attending on behalf of the Committee

Action: RSS to forward details of workshop.

9. Ofcom Consumer Policy

9.1 Claudio Pollack asked the Committee for their feedback on a several questions regarding Ofcom’s consumer policy.

9.2 There was discussion on Ofcom’s role in protecting consumers from bad practice; the possibility of extending the remit of the General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland to include telecoms; the provision of consumer information, particularly on ‘scams’; the need to introduce more competition into the Northern Ireland telecoms market; and appropriate ways for Ofcom to engage with stakeholders in Northern Ireland.

9.3 It was suggested that if Ofcom received a complaint call, even if it were not strictly its responsibility to deal with it, that even by passing it on it was taking a role in the complaint process, and therefore should have an interest in its outcome if only to ensure or to monitor that that aspect of the complaints process was working.

10. Committee Sub-Groups for 2006

10.1 It was agreed to re-visit the sub-groups for next year.

Action: JMcM to circulate list of projects for 2006 in order that members can register interest.

11. Any other business

11.1 The date of the next meeting is Thursday March 9 at Landmark House.