Agenda
1. Introductions
2. Presentation of Draft Cost-Benefit Analysis (‘CBA’)
3. Question and answer session
Panel Members
Peter Culham:
Oftel Chief Economist. Chairman to the
meeting
Maura Crawford: Oftel Numbering Officer. Secretary
to the meeting
David Lewin: OVUM
Peter Walker: Oftel Director
of Technology
Ray Thornton: Oftel Numbering
Scheme Manager
Minutes
of meeting
1. The Chairman
welcomed all the attendees to the meeting; they represented operators,
users and consumer groups. It was explained that David Lewin of
OVUM would present the main findings from the CBA and a Q&A
session would follow.
2. David Lewin
(‘DL’) provided a slide presentation (click
to view slides). DL explained the study objectives:
- to determine
which of four options for the future of freephone numbering
gave the UK the biggest economic benefit;
- to determine
the economic benefits to charging for freephone numbers; and
- to determine
whether there was any economic benefit to individual number allocation.
He described
the approach to the CBA; the establishment of the four options and
the determining factors surrounding each option, such as
tariff transparency and competitive effects.
The CBA concluded
that the most economic option was the technical solution devised
by the Network Interoperability
Consultative Committee’s study group: greater digit analysis
for routing. This was principally because, under this option, no
user of an existing 0800 9-digit number would have to change their
number.
DL concluded
that there would be a major benefit from charging for 0800 numbers.
He also stated that there was a strong economic case for introducing
individual number allocation.
3. There were
several questions from the floor.
DL ran through
the basis of the calculation for the costs associated with the loss
of tariff transparency in option A. He also explained that the £601m
benefit of Individual Number Allocation was based on 5% growth in
call traffic. However, benefits would have outweighed costs even
if growth had only been set at 0.5%.
It was suggested
that a rate of return of 15% would have been more appropriate for
the CBA. DL stated that the figure of 15% was considered, however,
the effects would have been minimal. DL agreed to do further sensitivity
analysis in this regard.
Peter Walker
explained that, on the basis of the NICC study and the CBA, Oftel
would be issuing a short 28 day statement / consultation document
before the end of the year, indicated that it was minded to adopt
the option C approach from the CBA, subject to any response which
identified a better alternative. Oftel felt that only a short consultation
would be necessary given the extensive discussions and studies that
had already taken place.
There was concern
expressed over the limited number of blocks of 0800 freephone numbers
that remained. Ray Thornton said that there were few applications
and that the remaining ten blocks would now last into next year;
it was only new operators that were applying for them.
The Chairman
thanked DL and the attendees. He said that Oftel would be happy
to receive written comments on the CBA, which they would pass to
OVUM.
Background
Document
Please click here for final copy of Freephone CBA
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