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13|03|06

Minutes of the Seventh meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee on Older and Disabled People, 12 October 2005

Present

Mike Whitlam (Chairman)
Lydia Thomas (Vice Chair)
Simon Cramp
Gareth Davies
Sally Greengross
Fred Heddell
Jonathan Kaye
Ross Trotter

In attendance

Louise Banyard, Policy Development Manager, Strategy & Market Developments, Ofcom
Bradley Brady, Public & Political Relations Manager, Ofcom
Kevin Carey, Content Board
Anne Hoitink, Project Manager, Consumer Policy Project, Ofcom
Chinyelu Onwurah, Head of Telecoms Technology, Strategy & Market Developments, Ofcom
Matt Peacock, Communications Director, Ofcom
Frank Phillips, Manager, Competition and Markets, Ofcom
Claudio Pollack, Director of Consumer Policy, Ofcom
Paul Rogers, Secretariat, Ofcom
Other Ofcom colleagues

1. Apologies for Absence

1.1 Apologies were received from Janet Askham, Denis Carter, Caroline Ellis and Bob Twitchin, Consumer Panel.

2 Minutes

2.1 The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

3. Matters arising

3.1 Committee recruitment. The closing date for applications for the two new Committee roles was 7 October 2005 and a total of 25 applications had been received by the closing date. If it was possible to appoint candidates with the required skills and experience, they would be in place for the next meeting of the Committee in January 2006.

3.2 Outcome of PSB Review. The Chairman had now received a response from Lord Currie confirming that the points raised by ACOD would be incorporated into the work arising from the review. Ofcom would also be writing to DCMS reflecting the points raised by ACOD. It was agreed that a copy of Lord Currie’s response would be sent to members together with the minutes of the meeting.

3.3 Attendance at National & Regional Advisory Committees (NRACs). The dates of all four NRACs had yet to be fixed and members would be advised as soon as they were known.

3.4 Stakeholder Panel. Any member who was interested in sitting on the Ofcom Stakeholder Panel to represent ACOD should notify Bradley Brady.

3.5 Electronic Programme Guides (EPGs). The Chairman explained that there was a need for people to access audio description through the EPG and that Ofcom was currently considering the problem. He indicated to members that they should look out for an announcement to be made by the BBC World Service on Friday 14 October 2005, concerning publicising access services. The members asked when a demonstration of the prototype set top box with a speaking EPG would be held. It was agreed that Bradley Brady would check with Milan Vasilko about availability for a demonstration.

3.6 Audit of Media Literacy. The members were informed that the results of the UK audit of media literacy would feature as an agenda item for the January 2006 meeting.

3.7 New Voice Services (NVS) The draft NVS guidelines had yet to be issued. Bradley Brady was asked to check the current status of the project.

3.8 Ofcom Research. The Chairman reported that a meeting had taken place to discuss ACOD’s research needs. A follow up meeting would take place on 1 November. The Chairman had confirmed that it would be possible to pull out data from the OCC monthly information specifically relating to older and disabled people.

3.9 Specialist programming for disabled and older people. A brief discussion took place on the merits of specialist programming for disabled and older people. It was concluded that such programming would have limited appeal.

Digital Switchover

4.1 The Chairman reported that the DSO sub group had met for the second time on 16 September and the next meeting of the group would take place at the close of business to meet with a representative from Digital UK. The Chair and Vice-Chair are also to have discussions with DCMS to find out more about the help that would be available for vulnerable groups during switchover.

4.2 Bradley Brady advised the members that the ultimate responsibility for switchover rested with the Government and that Ofcom’s role was to assist with spectrum planning. It would be Digital UK’s role to lead switchover, and ensure that the consumer issues were successfully dealt with. Although ACOD is not able to act as an advisory body to Digital UK, it is clearly important that the intelligence gathered by the Committee is shared with them.

4.3 The Chairman sought the views of members on what the important issues from DSO were and the following points emerged:

that security would be a very important issue for vulnerable groups
more information was needed on which body would be responsible for the provision of financial support; it would be unacceptable if the method of delivery was to amount to a post code lottery
information about switchover would need to be given to people in an appropriate way and at the right time for the message to be absorbed
that vulnerable households which had more than one television set would only have support to adapt their main set
that there were still equipment issues to be resolved; the cost of set top boxes with accessible features had yet to be brought down
that the impact of negative publicity about the prospective rises in the BBC licence fee did not assist with public goodwill towards switchover

4.4 One member suggested that consideration should be given to an alternative means of delivery for DSO – such as IPTV. It was noted that IPTV involved ongoing subscription costs which would not be the case for a set top box. In conclusion members thought it important that older and disabled people should not be disadvantaged by DSO.

Nations and Regions Audit

5.1 Louise Banyard, Policy Development Manager, both from Strategy & Market Developments and another Ofcom colleague attended the meeting to brief the members on Ofcom’s proposals for an audit of the Nations and Regions. The audit is an Annual Plan commitment to ensure that Ofcom’s work reflected the differences between the Nations and Regions of the UK by covering:

how citizen and consumer (residential and small and medium sized enterprises’ (SME) interests are met across the UK and the variances between the nations and regions
the identification of the key patterns in communications services covering access, penetration, awareness, understanding, intentions and usage
an analysis of the results by geographic location and consumer/SME grouping

5.2 Going forward the results of the audit will help Ofcom to assess its existing policy on the identified patterns and whether any changes in regulatory approach are needed. The audit may also help to identify whether there are any implications for government policy

5.3 Due to the size of the sample this year’s audit would not analyze the interests of citizen-consumers by reference to age, ethnicity or disability. It was suggested that when an analysis by age took place Ofcom would need to ensure there were more age ranges identified rather than using one age category.

5.4 One member questioned the necessity for the audit as there was a large number of information sources already available. It was explained that Ofcom would need to take a much more in depth approach and would not duplicate existing research.

5.5 Overall the members welcomed the Ofcom initiative but warned that care needed to be taken to identify groups where English was a second language. The Chairman noted that the four National and Regional Advisory Committees would be setting up sub-committees to assist in the audit and thought that ACOD should also be involved in order to ensure that the particular interests of older and disabled citizen consumers would be taken into account. It was agreed that Louise Banyard would advise the ACOD research group of the progress of the audit and that an update would be given at the January meeting.

EU Regulation

6.1 Frank Philips, Manager, Competition and Markets, attended the meeting to give the members an overview of European telecommunications regulation and current initiatives of interest for older and disabled people.

6.2 Accessibility was at the forefront of the European agenda which, in 2000, adopted the goal of making the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. In 2005 the i2010 European Information Society 2010 initiative was adopted which aimed:

to create an open and competitive single market for information society and media services within the EU
to increase EU investment in research on information and communication technologies
to promote an inclusive European information society.

6.3 The UK Presidency activities included an i2010 event held on 6 September 2005 (dealing with information space, innovation and investment and inclusion) and an eAccessibility Conference to be held on 21 October 2005 (dealing with how both older and disabled people can benefit from electronic communications). The Chairman would be attending the conference and thought it represented a good opportunity to link up with other stakeholder groups.

6.4 Mr Phillips asked if any ACOD member was interested in attending a TCAM Accessibility Workshop on 28 June 2006 (TCAM is the regulatory and advisory committee for the operation of the Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive). The members discussed the invitation and sought advice from Kevin Carey (who had experience of attending events at that level) and he agreed to draft a briefing note outlining the issues that would be of interest to ACOD.

Ofcom Annual Plan 06/07

7.1 The Chairman and Deputy Chair would be attending a Strategy Away Day for Ofcom’s Boards, Panels and Advisory Committees later that week and sought advice from the members as to what ACOD would regard as key priorities for 2006/07. The members concluded that many of the priorities for 2005/06 would still be relevant for the next year. In addition it was thought essential that Ofcom assess at an early stage the likely impact of future market developments on older and disabled people. The members were very interested in BT’s 21st century network (21CN) and noted that a representative from BT would be attending the next Committee meeting.

Numbering Strategy

8.1 Matt Peacock, Communications Director and Chinyelu Onwurah, Head of Telecoms Technology, Strategy & Market Developments attended the meeting to brief the members on Ofcom’s Numbering Strategy. There were thought to be two key areas affecting vulnerable customers:

that the telephone number might be the main means of conveying information about tariff to customers
that there was a level of confusion over different numbering schemes and tariffs

8.2 Ofcom regarded the continuity of telephone numbers to be of great importance as many consumers would not want to change their number. It was also thought important that customers should be able to easily distinguish between numbers for mobile phones and those for premium rate services. Ofcom also regarded it as important that customers had confidence in its numbering plan and would not wish to allocate numbers to companies known to have operated ‘scams’.

8.3 Ofcom was also concerned about the continued availability of numbers to meet consumer demand. There were ten billion numbers available but 84 per cent could not be used because of the way in which the numbering plan is structured (different codes for each geographic area, prefixes for certain services, fixed separate from mobile etc). Further numbers were lost because of operator competition and inefficient use of the numbers. As a result some areas are facing the possibility of running out of numbers. To ensure there are no shortage problems Ofcom wished to:

manage demand from operators and allocate numbers more efficiently
reorganise parts of the numbering plan (08 and 09) to make it easier to understand without changing geographic numbers or prefixes
move to a more market led approach with increased consumer protection

The increased consumer protection might include

adopting a consumer protection test in allocating numbers
introducing a clearer definition of Ofcom’s numbering responsibilities and principles.

8.4 The members were concerned that any change in prefixes might cause problems for text users and also thought that greater clarity was needed as to why consumers were not always able to exercise number portability. Ofcom confirmed that it recognized the problem for text users and explained that sometimes poor demand management prevented number portability. Prefixes would not be effected by the Review

Consumer Strategy

9.1 Claudio Pollack, Director of Consumer Policy and Anne Hoitink, Project Manager, Consumer Policy Project to brief the members on Ofcom’s developing consumer policy. Ofcom recognized that competition did not always deliver the benefits desired by consumers and wished to ensure that consumers were sufficiently well informed to make informed choices. In addition Ofcom would be considering how the existing consumer protection measures could be made more effective. A consultation document would be issued in the New Year and it was agreed that Consumer Strategy would feature on the Committee’s January 2006 agenda.

Any other business

10.1 There was none. The meeting ended at 4.07pm