Responsibilities

• This Group has been set up to act as the Industry forum for progressing the detailed work necessary to introduce the new arrangements for Directory Enquiries services in the UK. These new arrangements were set out in Oftel’s September 2001 Statement.

• This Group is responsible for the creation, maintenance and fulfilment of an Industry plan for introducing the new DQ arrangements, taking into account the input of the Sub-Groups as necessary.

• This Group will ensure co-ordination between all DQ Sub-Groups that are set up. The current Sub-Groups are:

1. The Numbering Sub-Group

2. The Billing and Interconnection Sub-Group

3. The Consumer Issues Sub-Group

• A Technical Sub-Group has also been proposed. Should the other sub-groups be unable to tackle any technical issues, the technical sub-group will be convened as and when required.

• The Group will receive regular reports from each Sub-Group and highlight dependencies between Sub-Groups, and ensure that adequate resources and expertise is made available to the Sub-Groups.

• The Group will consider the views of the Consumer Issues sub-group when assessing any consumer-affecting issues. If required the Group will also be responsible for obtaining the views of additional Consumer representatives to any material consumer-affecting issues that arise if necessary.

Membership

• The Group will be open to Oftel, representatives of Annex 2 operators and representatives of all organisations considering providing a full (business and residential) national Directory Enquires Service and/or an International Directory Enquiries Service using a 118XX(X) code.

• Representatives of Consumer Groups will be invited to specific meetings as and when required.
• Participation will be limited to at most two representatives from any organisation at any meeting. Participants are encouraged to send one representative only if at all possible in the interests of meeting efficiency. Extra participants from some organisations may be invited by the Group on an ad-hoc basis in the event that specialist advice is required.

Method of Working

• Meetings will be held monthly (subject to review).
• An email distribution list will be maintained of contacts from eligible organisations who indicate they wish to be included on such a list.
• Minutes of each meeting will be produced as soon as possible after each meeting, and will be circulated by email. Minutes will be posted when agreed on Oftel’s web site.

Constitution

• Oftel will chair the Working Group. The Chair will have a duty to carry out chairing functions impartially. The Chair will be responsible for administering and maintaining the master email distribution list for the Group, and for arranging Group meetings. At least one month’s notice of meeting dates will normally be given.
• Secretary – duty to rotate alphabetically amongst meeting participants, starting in the middle of the alphabet and proceeding downwards.

Quorum

• Minimum - representatives of five different organisations, including at least one representative of a network operator, one representative of a (non-network operator) service provider, and Oftel.