Present:
Bob Twitchin Chairman
Caroline Jacobs
David Mann
Brian McGinnis
John Barnes
Ross Trotter
Gretel Jones
Hillary Smith
Sue Williams

In attendance:
Neil Buckley Policy Project Director, Oftel (Item 6)
Paul Rogers ACT Secretariat, Oftel
David Edwards ACT Secretariat, Oftel
Fiona Miller BT ADU (Item 9)

Speech to text reporter:
Elizabeth Willet

Welcomes, apologies and notification of any other business (Item 1)

DIEL4202 Apologies from Stephen Smith and Katherine Phipps (new DIEL member) and Frank Phillips, Oftel policy adviser. Peter Ashley, a Trustee of the Alzheimer's Society, was to attend the meeting to deliver a short presentation. He hoped to attend the next meeting. Paul Rogers, new Head of ACT Secretariat, would join the meeting later. Bob Twitchin welcomed new DIEL members Gretel Jones and Hillary Smith.

DIEL4302 AOB: David Mann wished to raise Oftel's Annual Report, John Barnes wished to raise the emergency roadside telephone and Bob Twitchin wished to add DIEL input to Oftel projects to the agenda (matrix of members' interests).

Minutes of last meeting (Item 2)

DIEL4402 Minutes were approved. It was agreed that in future members should have sight of and the opportunity to comment on minutes before they are posted on the ACT website. Members would still have the opportunity to comment on minutes at DIEL meetings.

Matters arising not otherwise on the agenda (Item 3)

DIEL4502 Rolling actions list:

• Textphone access to the ACT offices had been discussed with Paul Rogers and it had been agreed that steps would be taken to implement this, the 'for rental' BT textphone could be the solution.
• On signage and text payphones, it was agreed that the Strategic Rail Authority's (SRA)'Train and Station Services for Disabled Passengers - A Code of Practice' should be forwarded to DIEL members and BT (Ricability played an important role in drafting the document).
• It was agreed that 'water had passed under the bridge' and that it was no longer necessary to produce a formal note of the meeting between DIEL and BT's Fiona Miller back in February.
• Bob Twitchin would follow-up good practice on call steering with the Employers' Forum on Disability.

DIEL4602 TextDirect: Ross Trotter expressed disappointment that Oftel did not appear to oppose BT's decision to discontinue 0800 access and replace it with an 0871 number, particularly when relevant consumer groups felt such a step should be delayed. There were a number of reasons to continue 0800 access, including lack of access via 1800x from the Telewest and mobile networks and 25% of calls through the relay still via 0800. Call steering systems were causing problems and a separate text-to-text call option was yet to be implemented. 0871 calls would be charged at 10ppm so fixed line users forced to use this form of access would be charged more than hearing people. Ross Trotter's view was that this was discriminatory. Users would also pay for calls where the called number turned out to be engaged and charges would be even higher from mobile networks. He also raised concern that Typetalk was under pressure from BT to reduce its PCA target of 90% within 16 seconds (PCA = % of calls answered).

[Note: BT has since postponed withdrawal of 0800 access until 30 September 2002 and a number of meetings took place in July and August, involving, amongst others and on different occasions, TAG, DIEL, DTI, Oftel and BT.]

DIEL4702 Text and other payphones: On 26 April 2002 Bob Twitchin, Katherine Phipps, David Edwards and two colleagues from the RNIB visited BT at Woburn to look at the accessibility of BT's new multimedia (Eagle) payphone. Although BT had taken steps to improve screen and keyboard layout, coin and payment card input remained located at the top of the housing with use very difficult for wheelchair users or people with restricted height. Good news was that most of the new payphones will be on managed sites and the 'internal variant' housing permits better access to payment slots. Caroline Jacobs reported that Marconi (manufacturer of Eagle) had contacted Ricability to discuss structured user trails but it was disappointing that Marconi chose not to pursue this further. David Mann commented that the access issue arising from the street version of Eagle highlighted a gap in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), ie the DDA did not cover manufactured goods. The Disability Rights Commission was consulting on legislative change to the DDA and DIEL could submit views.

[Note: The DRC sent copies direct to members. The consultation included a questionnaire to elicit responses.]

DIEL4802 Ross Trotter reported that the upgrade of text payphones for TextDirect access appeared to be going well. He had worked closely with Dave Evans of BT Payphones on a spreadsheet listing of sites which would be available from the BT website. If users required lists for particular areas BT hoped to make them available on request. There appeared to be no plans to upgrade the Eagle phones to permit access to TextDirect via 1800x.

DIEL4902 TCAM Adhoc group: A meeting was planned for July 2002 in Copenhagen to continue discussion of possible application of an additional essential requirement on equipment for consumers with disabilities under the RTTE Directive. Tony Shipley of Phoneability hoped to attend and was seeking funding from the European Disability Forum. A working group led by BT's Mick Day had been set up to build a test case for textphones under the RTTE. A web discussion had already begun and the working group was aiming to present a paper at the Copenhagen meeting.

Chairman's report (Item 4)

DIEL5002 TAP issues: A meeting had been held with the three consumer consultants who had produced the scoping study on the OFCOM Consumer Panel. A TAP seminar would be held on 11 July to discuss definition of the 'consumer' and the Consumer Panel. Consumer bodies had been invited along with Age Concern and the Disability Rights Commission. Hillary Smith and Bob Twitchin would represent DIEL.

DIEL5102 Telecoms Industry Forum: ntl, Vodafone and T-Mobile had joined the Forum. Motorola, the mobile phone maker, had asked for a meeting.

DIEL5202 Telecoms Ombudsman: Elizabeth France was appointed as Ombudsman on 13 June 2002. The service was expected to be operational in January 2003.

DIEL5302 Oftel Forum: Bob Twitchin attended the Forum and it focussed on implementation of EU telecoms directives. He had fed in views from DIEL and disability groups in response to questions circulated by Oftel prior to the Forum.

DIEL5402 Public Utilities Access Forum (PUAF): TAP had taken over membership formerly held by the English advisory committee CCE. Bob Twitchin would act as the TAP/ACT link with PUAF and would ensure that relevent telecoms documents receive wider circulation.

Secretariat report (Item 5)

DIEL5502 DIEL strategy: The strategy document had been amended in the light of members' comments. Bob Twitchin had revised the matrix of members' interests and nominated a lead DIEL member to coordinate DIEL input to particular projects.

DIEL5602 Annual report/Report and Plans: These documents had been published. David Mann expressed disappointment that Oftel's Annual Report, which includes DIEL's annual report, had a small font size and this did not live up to the guidelines in the September 2001 Oftel publication Communicating with customers who are disabled.

[Note: Oftel's Annual Report 2001 appears on the Oftel website for the first time and this may allow viewing in larger fonts.]

DIEL5702 SACOT/Inverness: SACOT would be holding a broadband seminar in Inverness on 24 September 2002. SACOT intended to invite two people from each of the other ACTs.

DIEL5802 Disability access at Oftel: Improvements had been made to the 1^st floor tolilet, the inner door had been removed.

Draft Communications Bill (Item 6)

DIEL5902 Neil Buckley took members through provisions in the Draft Bill with a slide presentation. A Joint Lords and Commons scrutiny committee (only the second of its kind) was currently gathering evidence on the Draft Bill and would report in August. Neil Buckley commented that the Draft Bill was the work a parliamentary draftsman who had made little use of the term 'consumer'. He suggested that DIEL could seek assurances in its response to the Draft Bill that 'customers' includes users and potential users of communications services. Brian McGinnis pointed out that 'customers' could include customers that sell on to end users and conflicts could arise. On determining the level of universal service, in future this would be for the relevant SoS. No decisions had been made on the future of consumer complaint handling. John Barnes questioned the language of Clause 3(1)(c) which referred to optimal use of 'wireless telegraphy of the electro-magnetic spectrum' and suggested that it should include telephony. Neil Buckley argued that it was included. Bob Twitchin confirmed that DIEL would submit evidence to the Joint Committee and respond to the consultation on the Draft Bill.

Study on OFCOM Consumer Panel (Item 7)

DIEL6002 The scoping study commissioned by the TAP had only been copied to ACT members. DIEL members were requested to forward comments to the Secretariat.

Oftel consultations (Item 8)

DIEL6102 The general conditions of entitlement: It was agreed that members would comment by email. The general conditions apply to fixed and mobile operators.

BT A&D Round-up (Item 9)

DIEL6202 Fiona Miller had prepared a note for new DIEL members to outline the work of the Age and Disability unit. A&D takes part in various fora, is involved in Internal BT projects and provides input to product design. Its guide to products and services is aimed at professionals and organizations, a new version of the smaller guide would soon be available to consumers. Research showed that they were predominantly young people, it had been expected to be a service of interest to older consumers. Freephone numbers could be accessed as part of the service from 5 June 2002. A new 'In Contact Card' was being developed to replace Phonecard Plus. It would use voice prompts and there were no plans to enhance functionality, eg to benefit hearing impaired people, but Fiona Miller agreed to raise this with Marcia Turner in BT RAD. Only 14% of In Contact Plus customers appeared to be using the voice prompts.

DIEL6302 It was reported that 0800 access to TextDirect would be ended in mid August [Note: cut off was subsequently moved to 30 September.]. A new 0871 'Relay Assist' service would be available alongside 1800x. BT was working on enhancements to TextDirect, including a text-to-text access option. TAG had raised concern about charging for calls via 0871 as soon as a call reached the TextDirect platform. Charging would now begin once an operator joined a call. Customers would still be charged if the number they wished to call turned out to be engaged. Ross Trotter expressed concern about users who had no choice but to access the relay via 0871 and thereby incur high call charges, eg calls from mobiles. BT would meet TAG the following Monday and Ross Trotter would keep DIEL informed.

DIEL6402 The upgrade of text payphones was nearly complete, including a textphone symbol on payphone housings. At managed sites there continued to be 'battles' over signage. The SRA guidelines could be helpful to BT at managed sites at railway stations. The target for volume controls on 'legacy' payphones had slipped to October 2003 but 100% coverage was anticipated. BT had been forced to take software design 'in house'. Dave Evans of BT Payphones was following up some work on text payphone screen design to improve the contrast between fonts and background and would try to arrange a demonstration.

Members' reports (Item 10)

DIEL6502 Oftel Disconnections sub-group: David Mann had provided a note to update DIEL members. The latest version of draft guidelines had been copied to members. More thinking was required on issues of monitoring and enforcement. Caroline Jacobs commented that the OFT had recently published advice on CoPs containing useful sections on monitoring and enforcement.

DIEL6602 Oftel mobiles working group: The working group was awaiting a draft CoP from industry members.

Reports (Item11)

DIEL6702 TAG and Phoneability minutes had been copied to members. Gretel Jones wished to be kept informed of Hearing Concern's work on the provision of telecoms equipment in hospitals. There were no other issues to report. John Barnes would forward WGHI minutes to Secretariat.

AOB (Item12)

DIEL6802 There was insufficient time to talk about the emergency roadside telephone.