A.1 During the drafting of this document and throughout the price control review, Oftel has been and will be advised by a Consumer Panel - a small group established to ensure that the interests of residential telecoms customers are taken account of - and a Panel of Economic and Financial Experts.
The panel consists of five advisers chosen for their expertise and ability to represent the interests of residential customers. They are:
Moira Black - Chair of the English Advisory Committee on Telecommunications and previously a partner at Price Waterhouse.
John Hughes - Chair of the National Consumer Council's (NCC) Economic Policy Committee. Former member of the NCC.
Stephen Locke - Director of Research and Policy at the Consumers' Association and Executive Member of the Bureau of European Consumer Unions.
Richard Thomas - Director of Public Policy, Clifford Chance. Previously Director of Consumer Affairs at the Office of Fair Trading and, before that Legal Officer at the NCC.
Courtenay Thompson - Chair of the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee on Telecommunications and former member of the Northern Ireland General Consumers Council and President of the Belfast Junior Chamber of Commerce.
1. The Price control Review Consumer Panel ("the Panel") is established by the Director General of Telecommunications under section 54(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1984.
2. The remit of the panel is to:
(a) consider the issues that arise in the Director General's review of the control of BT's prices for the price control period commencing in 1997.
(b) advise the Director General on the implications of these issues for residential customers in the UK;
(c) seek to ensure that the interests of residential customers are properly taken into account in the review process;
(d) seek to ensure that residential customers receive a fair share of the benefits of the future price control regime;
(e) advise the Director General on: the appropriate level of universal service provision from 1997; the associated funding and delivery arrangements; the process by which delivery should be monitored; the criteria and processes by which the level of universal service should be reviewed over time; and on whether a separate Universal Service Advisory Group should be formed.
3. The Panel will meet as and when necessary from September 1995 - July 1996. It will receive administrative and other support from Oftel's Consumer Affairs Branch.
4. Because of the commercially sensitive nature of much of the information which the Panel will consider, the work of the Panel will involve access to confidential material.
The Panel advises Oftel on an ad-hoc basis on all aspects of the price control review. They are:
John Vickers - Drummond Professor of Political Economy, University of Oxford who specialises in Regulatory Economics.
Dr John Haring - Consultant with Strategic Policy Research, Washington, and previously Chief Economist and Head of the Plans and Policy Office at the Federal Communications Commission, Washington.
Nigel Macdonald - Senior Partner with Ernst & Young who has advised a number of regulatory bodies on accounting and wider regulatory matters.
Martin Cave - Professor of Economics at Brunel University who specialises in regulatory economics and related policy issues. He has been an adviser to Oftel for a number of years.
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