FOREWORD

This is the second Management Plan that Oftel has published. It sets out in some detail Oftel's work programme for 1996/7 and beyond. Publication of this Plan is a central plank in my attempt to improve the transparency of Oftel's work by keeping the industry and customers informed of what we are intending to do over the coming year. I received very few comments on the 1995/96 Plan. I hope that it is because it met your needs. I would, however, welcome comments on this year's Plan.

Underpinning all the work described in this Plan is our goal to get the best possible deal for the customer in terms of quality, choice and value for money. We deliver this goal through five high level objectives which provide the structure for this Plan:

• promoting fair, efficient and sustainable network competition;

• promoting fair, efficient and sustainable services competition;

• securing licence enforcement and fair trading;

• securing a fair distribution of the benefits of competition between different groups of customers;

• protecting consumer interests, especially where effective competition is not yet fully developed.

For each of these objectives you will find full details of the project work and other services and functions that we will be carrying out over the coming year, including the timetables we are intending to work to. These projects and timetables are not set in stone but need to be flexible to reflect the fast pace of change in the telecommunications market and comments we receive from our consultative processes.

The role of Oftel is changing. It is therefore very important that we should measure the extent to which we are meeting our goal and objectives, not only to assess the effectiveness of our policies but also to decide when the time is right for certain deregulatory initiatives. We are placing increasing emphasis on this area of work as you will see from Chapter 10 on Performance Measures.

I am interested in your feedback - I would welcome any comments on the work we are undertaking, our priorities, our proposed timescales, our performance, the format and usefulness of this Plan, and what other information you might like about Oftel's work.

DON CRUICKSHANK

Director General of Telecommunications

The Office of Telecommunications
50 Ludgate Hill
London EC4M 7JJ
Tel: 0171 634 8700
Fax: 0171 634 8943

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