Chairman’s welcome and apologies:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to Omagh and the meeting began at 10.00am. The Chairman extended a particular welcome to David Mann, who will be attending NIACT meetings in future as an observer. David works for RNIB as a campaigns officer, including for public utilities, e.g.
telecoms.

Approval of the minutes of 20^th November 2001.

The minutes were approved unanimously.

• The list of action points from the last meeting was discussed.
• The Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire has been given to the other ACT Chairs and will continue to be fed back.
• IRTU has announced funding for rural businesses getting connected to satellite ADSL. There should also be reduced rates for the fixed line service announced shortly.
• There was not the usual rush of complaints after Christmas
• For consumers using BT's free answer service, the interrupted dial tone prevents a modem from connecting - Secretariat to do some work on publicising this.
• The DG is supportive of the proposal for a scoping report on the Ofcom Consumer Panel, but the Chairman was not confident that the proposal would succeed. We may need to give way on having regional Board members, and accept regional representation at Consumer Panel level.
• Hardware and software is being accumulated for use in the NIACT office to improve complaints handling efficiency.

• The Director General has decided to use the ACTs members more and has alerted all Oftel staff that the ACTs exist. They must be able to show that they have consulted with the ACTs, and if not, why not.
• Members should highlight which areas of the Draft Management Plan they would like to become involved in before the conference. Moore Kennedy has already become involved in a Directory Enquiries project.
• Oftel has been helping Poland with its regulatory issues for joining the EU in 2004. The Chairman was invited to Warsaw to talk to the budding regulator about regional representation of consumer interests. The Chair of CfB also attended and gave a talk about representing the interests of small businesses. It was a very interesting and worthwhile trip indeed. They have been invited to the conference and assistance has been offered.
• Ian Forsythe, who is involved in drafting the Ofcom Bill, has offered to come over and talk to the Committee about the progress made to date. Proposed date 21^st March to allow GCCNI / CABx to become involved. This may be the final opportunity to put forward NIACT's views before it becomes law in autumn this year. The Welsh and Scottish assemblies have discussed the Bill and are working towards regional representation. Northern Ireland's assembly and Westminster MPs should also be briefed. Previous meetings with the office of the First and Deputy First Ministers have been very constructive, and Lord Alderdice has suggested that we go to a committee member and ask him to raise a Personal Members Bill. NIACT will approach Alistair McDonald.
• NIACT has already approached members of the House of Lords in advance of debates and will do similarly for MPs. Sylvia Hermon will be a good person to canvass - the Chairman will attempt to meet her and discuss further.
• The Chairman, as well as John Stringer and Caroline Mulvenna, attended the BT e-commerce show in the Odyssey for a breakfast and presentation from Microsoft - very interesting and a good speaker. Alan Kerr also attended the conference, which while very much an advertisement for BT, was very worthwhile.

• The budget for 2001/02 has been slightly revised and at the moment we are performing to target. There may be a slight overspend at the end of the year. Everyone must ensure that expenses are submitted by mid March.
• Budget 2002/03:
  • Conference bid is £9000 - this has also been allocated to this year's event
  • Possibility of producing a booklet for the Market Research results for publicity
  • Bid for part time additional staff
  • Research bid will be £12000 - there should be no difficulty getting it if we have good quality projects.
  • The budget will be agreed by Oftel shortly and approved by the Treasury by June
• Some members have used up their allowance days already - the Chairman will investigate the possibility of reallocating days from the remainder of the Secretariat. Moore, Ian and Brian should submit details of extra days worked to the Secretariat.

• Committee members will be asked to become more involved.
• The programme is developing well and there will be workshops once again.
• The budget has been set and so far it is expected to be adhered to.
• The minutes of the last sub committee were reviewed and the members duties agreed on. Members agreed to be present in the venue at 8.00am and to stay to host a VIP table.
• Questions will be issued to the committee to be asked at the Q&A sessions.
• The start time will be 9.20am promptly. The back rows of the theatre will be closed off to encourage people to sit at the front, making space for latecomers.
• Linda will invite the delegates to visit the exhibitions.
• Publicity has been very good and there will be coverage in some disability magazines.
• People from other committees will be attending the pre conference dinner - Secretariat should investigate whether the other committees can fund their places.
• The Chairman thanked the conference sub committee and the Secretariat for their hard work on the conference.
• Mobile Health is still very much an issue, but politicians are beginning to use it for points scoring and it is becoming a party political issue. Therefore, care needs to be taken about future handling of this issue.

• The results were presented to the committee as slides.
• The Secretariat should attempt to benchmark against the rest of GB and investigate which social groups replied to each issue.
• The Secretariat should investigate producing a glossy report for distribution and PR.
• The Chairman will ask for extra funding for the brochure.

• Coverage is continuing to improve - in press, radio and television
• Internet coverage is good, with the conference mentioned on several sites including NICCI, W5, ACTs, and the BBC.
• There is string advance PR for the conference and the coverage of the roadshow in November was very good. Members should make themselves available on the day of the conference for photos.
• The Chairman congratulated Debbie for the increase.

• 20 forms were returned out of 50 sent out.
• The feedback has been very positive and satisfaction levels remain high.

• There has been a very wide range of complaints once more.
• BT has increased is line rental for customers who do not pay by Direct Debit - this has produced a series of complaints. Brian Collins will investigate whether this is a breach of Human Rights.
• There has been quite a large number of complaints about the 1571 service since appearing on 'On Your Behalf' in January. There is no indication that there is a message waiting until the handset is lifted, which is a common complaint, but there are new products coming onto the market which will have a flashing light to indicate messages.
• Ntl is investigating on a national level whether it will be possible to have NIACT or Oftel details printed on the backs of their bills.

• This group has been taken over by the NCC; this was the new Chair's first meeting.
• The remit is very wide - this may make it very difficult to achieve much. However, it was suggested that sub committees be formed to tackle specific issues. Regional representation was raised.
• Attendance in the future would be worthwhile to pursue the Ofcom agenda.

• Directory Enquiries numbers will all become 118xxx and number allocation is currently up for debate.
• Some companies are proposing to offer onward connections, which may pose problems for premium rate numbers.
• The consumer representatives are not yet up to date - there will be another meeting with the companies on 26 March to achieve this.
• UK DQ will continue to be available on the Internet
• The free service for disabled people who cannot use a phone book is being overhauled and all users must re-register - but it is unclear at the moment what the terms will be and how much help will be available.

• None

22 April 2002, ODTR, Dublin

• NIACT was joined by Councillors and members of the public at 12.00noon
• The Chairman welcomed everyone, described NIACT's role in consumer representation and introduced the members.
• The members of the public raised the issue of masts in the area and stated that the community had not been consulted about whether masts should go up.
• A Fermanagh councillor queried whether BT would plan to phase out phone boxes now that mobiles are becoming so popular.
• The competitiveness of the fixed line market was discussed - it seemed a little unfair that BT should have to spend so much money ensuring service in the remotest parts of NI. The Chairman explained the Universal Service obligation and how BT was able to provide uneconomic services.
• Broadband was discussed - there should be access for rural areas at a fair price.
• The Chairman explained about Ofcom and how regional representation would end - all the councillors were very supportive of regional representation and offered to do anything possible to help.