Annex A

Oftel’s regulatory principles – as updated April 2002

Annex B

Summary of Oftel regulatory decisions, 2002-03

B.1 This annex updates the information published in last years management plan and the 2001 annual report. The intention is to capture Oftel's main activities and decisions as reflected in its publications and press releases. The presentation of this material has been further developed since the annual report with further sub-categorisation as follows:

• the sections on 'removal of regulation' and 'formal regulation' are now subdivided into 'proposed' and 'implemented' (allowing a clearer distinction between ongoing activities and actual changes, and avoiding double counting from year-to-year); and
• the section on 'Co-regulation' is subdivided into 'Oftel/industry initiatives' and 'Oftel guidance' (the latter are Oftel publications aimed at contributing to transparency).

April 2002-March 2003 (including major cases)

Removal of regulation

Proposed

• price controls for fixed telephony – proposed relaxation of price control in return for the development of a fit for purpose wholesale line rental product; and

• BT licence conditions – proposed removal of obligation on BT to provide accounting information in respect of managed network services.

• Unmetered Internet Call Termination Market Review - removal of regulation due to the level of competition created by the FRIACO product;

• Wholesale International Services Market Review - reduction in regulation on a number of international call routes to reflect the growth of UK competition (regulation of 5% instead of 17% of calls volume);

• Wholesale Services Market Review - reduction in regulation covering BT services for business customers, to allow BT to offer more bundled services and discounts (however, BT will have to offer wholesale versions of retail bundled services offered to businesses)

Implemented

• mobile market – removed the determination that Vodafone and O₂/BTCellnet have Market Influence (and hence lifted the obligation to supply air time to independent service providers);
• mobile market Oftel formula returns – removed obligation on Vodafone and O₂/BTCellnet to provide financial data to monitor unfair cross-subsidy rules (consequence of above);
• BT licence conditions – reduced the notification period for price changes for a trial period (until November 2003) for some products; and
• number translation services – removed obligation on BT to provide number translation services used for voice services.

Forbearance

• conditional access services – licence not modified to allow the Director General to set ex ante prices for conditional access services.

Self-regulation

• Telecoms Ombudsman – industry developing funded scheme (with Oftel support of process); and
• quality of service – indicators published six monthly by industry funded third party.
• Mobile SIM-locking - Oftel calling on the industry to raise consumer awareness of current practices

Co-regulation

Oftel/Industry initiatives

• price comparisons – launched Oftel's Price Assurance Standard;

• call success rates – test of mobile networks;

• industry data collection – published Oftel's strategic approach following consultation with industry;

• helping customers manage bills and avoid disconnection – published guidance for telecoms providers on a code of practice (report produced by telecoms industry, consumers and Oftel); and

• infrastructure liabilities – consulted on proposals to ensure that highway authorities have access to funds to cover the costs they incur when removing redundant telecoms apparatus.

Oftel guidance/aids to transparency

• Published Oftel reports:

• international roaming research reports;
• market research;
• special rate number allocations: market research report on SMEs' views and opinion of special rate numbers;
• market research into customer satisfaction with Oftel complaints handling;
• international benchmarking;
• market information; and
• management plan for 2002-03.

• Consumer leaflets/guides published by Oftel:

• How to get the best from mobile phone;
• Accessing the Internet from home;
• Getting best from mobiles abroad;
• Rights and choices as a telephone customer;
• 'Lines and calls' services; and
• Guide to new 118 Directory Enquiry Services

• Published Oftel guidance for operators:

• Network security and 999 services – guidelines published covering issues to do with network integrity and security, and an overview of fixed telephony 999 services;
• marketing Internet services – published a statement setting out Oftel's policy on BT’s marketing for broadband and narrowband Internet services and joint billing of its ‘BT Broadband’ product;
• significant market power (SMP) – guidance explained the criteria that Oftel intends to use to assess the existence of SMP when conducting market reviews in accordance with EC requirements;
• access obligations under the new EU Directives – guidance published to ensure that competing operators and service providers have a fair expectation of the kind of regulatory obligations that Oftel is likely to consider appropriate under the new Directives; and that SMP operators have clear indications of what is likely to be expected of them in the provision of wholesale products;
• Customer Line Identification display services - consulted on draft guidelines;
• The new regulatory framework under the new EU Directives and the Communications Bill;
• Access Network Frequency Plan (ANFP) for BT's Metallic Access Network;
• Content and scope of company codes of practice to help customers manage their bills and avoid disconnection;
• Terms of supply of conditional access;
• frequently asked questions on the regulation of voice over IP services;
• Competition Act strategy;
• consulted on consumer protection policy review guidelines; and
• consulted on regulatory option appraisals.

Formal regulation

Proposed

• price of calls to mobile – agreed to implement the Competition Commission's proposals that mobile operators must cut their termination charges for calls to mobile phones, resulting in considerable savings for consumers;
• number portability – proposed enhancements for fixed and mobile systems to ensure speedier transfer of number blocks but will consult again in 2003 following a Regulatory Option Appraisal;
• premium rate services – proposed recognising ICSTIS Code of Practice covering controlled PRS;
• Wholesale Services Market Review - new regulation to require BT to provide a wholesale ISDN service for operators that want to compete in the business market and
• Unmetered Internet Call Termination Market Review - requirement for Kingston to offer wholesale unmetered internet products to introduce competition and choice for customers in Hull.
• Fixed geographic Call termination Market Review – regulation to require fixed operators to supply services on fair and reasonable terms (‘fair and reasonable’ likely to promote continuation of existing contractual arrangements)

Implemented

• Broadband – requirement on BT to offer ATM interconnection products and to run a trial for a SDSL version of the interconnection services;
• LLU – set out a requirement on BT to provide cost oriented LLU backhaul services; modified licence to require BT to supply reasons for the refusal of a co-mingling request; set out charges for supplying power in BT exchanges.
• partial private circuits – improved Service Level Agreements between BT and other operators, set retail price controls and safeguard caps for specified wholesale products. Reduced prices significantly;
• unmetered Internet access – amended the terms and conditions for FRIACO products;
• metering – guidance set criteria for assessment of the systems and scheme. Determinations issued against several companies on metering arrangements;
• requirement on BT to offer a wholesale line rental product; and
• carrier pre-selection – final determination of costs and charges for the provision by BT of permanent carrier pre-selection facilities and decision to include new codes within carrier pre-selection 'all calls option.
• BT regulatory accounting – requirement on BT to produce enhanced annual regulatory financial statements to ensure that Oftel has access to more detailed, high quality, transparent financial information on which to base its regulatory decisions.
• Issued a provisional order requiring BT to adhere to published prices in an offer it made to IBM, via an agent, for telecom services. BT duly withdrew its offer to IBM through its agent and undertook to stop the practice of discounting in this way.

Other significant actions that do not fit readily fit into the above categories

• Directory enquiries – allocated new six digit numbers for DQ services to telephone companies; and
• general conditions of entitlement – sets out the draft requirements that operators will need to meet in order to provide electronic communications networks and services. This replaces the current licensing regime. The change in approach is not intended to lessen existing obligations.
• Two part charging for interconnection - consulted on whether or not to introduce a new system of two part charging for all successful interconnection calls
• Universal Service - consulted on proposals for the terms of the specific universal service conditions, which, together with general conditions, will ensure universal service; and the electronic communications providers upon whom the specific conditions should be imposed.
• Dispute Resolution under the new European Framework Directive - set out how Oftel (and the Radiocommunications Agency) will meet the new requirement to resolve disputes in four months.
• Payphones - confirmed Oftel's guidance on the removal and re-siting of Public Call Boxes
• Notifications and Fees - consulted on proposals for regime for the industry contributing to the regulator's running costs after 25 July 2003. All companies (operators and extended to service providers) in the electronic communications sector with an annual turnover of £5 million or more should contribute to the regulator’s running costs through an administrative charge. However, removes the current requirement from about 100 companies.

Compliance decisions

Service Delivery agreement (SDA): Target 4 Encourage and secure a reduction in significant anti-competitive practice by taking effective action.

The outcomes of compliance cases have been analysed for the year 2002 and compared to those for previous years with a view to identifying recurrent behaviour. The analysis has focused on cases relating to abuse of market power in which either Oftel took enforcement action or the company changed its behaviour. In 2002, there were two such cases compared to 11 in 2001 and eight in 2000. This analysis implies that, in general, there is relatively little in the way of recurrent abuse of market power. As an example of Oftel action intended to provide a clear dis-incentive for repeat behaviour, Oftel responded to a complaint received in December 2002 by taking action against BT for offering a discount which was not "published and fully transparent" (in breach of its licence condition).

Oftel has targets for timely completion of cases. Results for 2002 are given below:

• Number of preliminary investigations (PI) cases completed within six weeks (target: to complete all PIs within six weeks) 100% for period Jan-June 2002 (from July 2002 there are no longer be preliminary investigations. This has the effect that this target no longer applies, while the targets for full investigations have effectively been tightened)

• Number of full investigations concluded within six months (target: to complete 80% within six months) 74%

• Number of full investigations concluded within 12 months (target: to complete all within 12 months) 98%

The average time to complete full investigations (based on cases closed in a calendar year ) fell from 5.2 months in 2001 to 4.9 months in 2002.

Oftel implemented a substantial re-organisation of the way it manages cases at the start of the second half of 2002. A better measure of how effective these changes have been in relation to timely completion of full investigations is to examine the duration of cases both opened and closed in a particular period. As at 11 March 2003 Oftel had closed 83% of full investigations opened during 2002 (78 investigations were opened in 2002 of which 65 had been completed by 11 March 2003) and these took an average of 3.5 months to complete. This compares with an average of 4.8 months for the 75% of full investigations that were opened in 2001 and closed by 11 March 2002 (71 investigations were opened in 2001 of which 53 had been completed by 11 March 2002).

Oftel is monitoring its use of the Competition Act to ensure consistency with its strategy (to rely on competition legislation to control anti-competitive behaviour wherever possible). In 2002, Oftel opened 10 cases under the Competition Act, compared to five cases in 2001.

As outlined in its Competition Act strategy statement of 1 July 2002, Oftel expects to investigate, and where appropriate take enforcement action, under the Competition Act rather than under the sectoral regime in cases where behaviour could contravene both the Competition Act and the sectoral regime.

Since implementation of the strategy Oftel opened 13 cases that it might have investigated under either the Competition Act or sectoral rules. Of these cases, nine (69%) were opened as Competition Act investigations (this compares with one case during the first half of 2002). However, following initial investigation, Oftel switched to sectoral powers in two of the nine cases. Oftel noted in its strategy statement that it may decide at any stage in an investigation that it is more appropriate to carry out the investigation under the sectoral regime rather than the Competition Act. However, in line with the strategy these cases were initially opened by Oftel as Competition Act investigations.

Oftel also monitors the ratio of cases completed under the Competition Act to the number that were started under the Competition Act. Oftel’s target is that this ratio should be greater than 50%. As outlined earlier, of the nine cases opened as Competition Act cases, Oftel investigated seven under the Competition Act. Four of these cases had been completed by the end of 2002 and all were closed under the Competition Act.

Annex C

Indicative EU market review timetable

Note: More detail on precise timings and progress will be made available to stakeholders via the Policy Focus Group as necessary

* The review will not be completed before the end of July and Oftel will publish a timetable in due course

** This review is on hold pending the outcome of the EU [DG Competition] enquiries

Annex D

Indicative consumer protection policy review (CPPR) timetable

D.1 The tables below indicate when existing consumer protection policy areas will be subject to review. Table 1 lists projects and programmes that Oftel intends to give priority to reviewing in 2003-4*.Table 2 lists projects/programmes with later review dates or where review timings are still to be determined. The timetable has been split this way so as to give stakeholders indication of Oftel’s priorities as regards consumer protection policy review. The timetable also includes activities that will not formally be a CPPR ie Ombudsman Service compliance check on alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. It should however be noted that this in an indicative timetable only and may be subject to revision.

Table 1: Indicative review timetable for Oftel projects/programmes, 2003-04

Table 2: Indicative review timetable for other Oftel projects/programmes

*The first phase of a CPPR will include a feasibility study of the scope and complexity of a policy review area including pre-consultation review work, where appropriate this may lead to a change in the review timetable and extent of the review to be undertaken.

** Universal Service Obligations cover a range of issues, as such any reviews undertaken would cover specific and appropriate areas of policy within the context of fulfilling USO obligations

*** The Welsh Language Act 1993, Northern Ireland Act 1998 and race Relations Act 1976 require regular monitoring and review of all three schemes which is detailed in the management plan. Whilst the existence of the schemes is not subject to review, their effectiveness will be subject to review.

Note to table

The above list is based on projects and programmes appearing in Oftel's 2003-04 management plan. It does not include areas of work, which are: primarily market review based; or relate to the overall framework of regulation; or, comprise a one-off action which is not suited to a cyclical review process.

Annex E

Developing Oftel’s understanding of telecoms demand

E.1 Over the last few years, Oftel has considerably expanded and developed its research programme, consisting continuous quarterly surveys with consumers and SMEs, supplemented with a variety of ad hoc projects, contributing to the evidence base for Oftel’s decision making.

E.2 Reference to the ‘average’ consumer is a useful way of summarising the evidence and providing a general understanding of behaviour, but consumers exhibit a wide range of behaviours which can be obscured in this approach. Oftel has been developing a more ‘holistic’ approach to examining consumer behaviour, segmenting consumers into different groups, providing greater insight into different needs and issues and enabling more individualised solutions to be sought and implemented. This is a technique that Oftel regularly employs for specific market segments and has now extended to the telecoms market as a whole, offering a cross-market perspective to assist set the tone for policy making in the run up and transition to Ofcom. Consumers were segmented on their usage and attitude towards telecoms, from which six main groups were distinguishable (see group highlights below).

E.3 This tool can assist Oftel’s decision making in a number of ways:

• assessing the extent of competition, demand, access; satisfaction with services; and identifying barriers to use of competition and areas and where further assistance is required;
• developing and pre-testing policy options, exploring whether new policies and services are attractive to which types of consumers, indications of what might assist success/contribute to failure;
• evaluating and monitoring success examining which groups have or have not made use of the choices available, and reasons for this behaviour; and
• identifying potential demand and content for consumer information and target groups for assistance.

Main messages

E.4 One of the main benefits of this type of analysis is the ability to differentiate between customer types and examine individual group issues. It is this granular level that Oftel shall be employing in its work, but at a more generic level it is useful to summarise some of the main messages that emerge from across the groups.

• Most groups, apart from those disadvantaged by cost, are generally satisfied with their telecoms services. Few choose their telecoms services on price alone – premiums are paid to ensure quality and reliability, along with innovation, bundled services, brands perceived to be trustworthy, and other valued features such as ability to control costs. Most decisions involve some balance or trade off between price and perceived quality or value of a service. This is not necessarily based on complete evidence, personal recommendations are the most widely used information source, although the advanced and progressive groups tend to make more use of information available in the market to make more balanced decisions;

• The advanced group readily adopts new services regardless of the cost, seeking increased functionality from their telecoms services. For those services with ‘mass-market’ potential, take-up spreads fairly rapidly to the progressive group, most of whom are currently using unmetered narrowband Internet packages, and are the potential next wave of broadband adopters. Take-up of new services remains considerably slower amongst the other groups, in most cases due to lack of interest and perceived need rather than significant barriers to adoption; and

• The advanced and progressive groups form a significant minority who are interested in getting a better deal and are prepared to switch between services and suppliers to achieve this. Apart from these two groups, interest in switching to get a better deal and to a lesser extent adoption of additional telecoms services, is low and significantly slower amongst the other groups who form the majority of the population. A number of reasons for this include:

Group highlights

Advanced users, two per cent of homes, ½ million homes

Essence – love telecoms and technologies. Are the first adopters of everything eg have broadband, WAP phones etc and not just for the sake of having it, they use it /genuine interest in it, but insufficient proportion of the population to drive competition. Quality and having the latest features are more important than price, although some price sensitivity. Heavy users and spenders, fairly sophisticated usage and demanding consumers, good awareness and making use of choices. Satisfied with their services, the information and most of the choices available.

Who – younger/middle aged men, single/with partner, no kids, own home, working, high income, AB social groups.

Progressive quality seekers, 34 per cent of homes, 8.5 million homes

Essence – have a variety of telecoms services, heavy users, and their use/attitude goes slightly beyond functional need. Cost and quality equally important, want best not cheapest deal. Interested in getting a better deal, changing/developing their usage, have switched suppliers and/or packages. Brand image is vital and they are prepared to pay a premium to guarantee quality and reliability but are not entirely happy about having to do so. Higher than average awareness of choices though some areas for improvement, greater use of supplier information sources (rather than word of mouth).

Who – younger to middle aged, married/with partner and with children, working, slightly higher than average income, ABC1

Passive basic users, 41 per cent of homes, 10.25 million homes

Essence – fairly heavy but basic telecoms users, not very interested in telecoms/switching to get a better deal. Never switched supplier – no perceived need, satisfied with current services, perceptions of insufficient savings. Average awareness of choices, decisions make on the cost and recommendations from others, after initial adoption little interest in switching to a better deal.

Who – closest to the ‘average’ consumer demographic profile – average spread across most factors. The only distinction is a marginally higher proportion working, and hence slightly lower than average aged 55+ and DE.

Contented light users, 20 per cent of homes, 5 million homes

Essence – basic and light telecoms users. Have either a fixed phone or a mobile and little interest in having much else. Light spenders, less likely than average to have switched – did not perceive significant barriers to switching – are satisfied with their current suppliers and saw insufficient savings to merit switching. Few use Internet anywhere and none had it at home, low intention to adopt more telecoms – lack of need, few saw cost as a barrier.

Who – middle aged/older, retired, significant proportions living alone with no kids at home, lower income/C2DE, living in urban areas of medium-high deprivation.

Disadvantaged by cost, 3 per cent of homes, 2/3 million homes

Essence – want to make greater use of telecoms but cost barriers to doing so. Ability to control and manage costs is vital. Have only a mobile or no phone at all, but would like more. Few have Internet at home but a third use it elsewhere – cost barriers to home access. The ability to control and manage costs is the main issue for this group and they will pay a premium in order to retain this flexibility and control.

Who – mainly young, working in low paid jobs or unemployed, low income, DE social groups, living in rented accommodation (largely state), in deprived urban areas, single and/or with young children

Don’t want home telephony, less than one per cent of homes, 60,000 homes

Essence – Infrequent telecoms users, don’t have any home telephony, claim do not /would not use it enough to have a fixed or mobile phone, use payphone or someone else’s phone if need to make a call.

Who – older/retired, and/or disabled, live in rented accommodation, often alone, no kids, in urban deprived areas, low income, C2DE.

Further consumer profiling work

Oftel's recent profiling work carried out since publication of the draft management plan identified a group of consumers who appeared to be at a disadvantage. These were largely low-income groups. Further research amongst low-income groups was carried out to establish whether their telecoms needs and uses differed according to ethnicity.

The findings from this study indicated a fundamental difference was greater international calling amongst non-white ethnic groups. Generally speaking all low-income groups were unaware of methods to compare telecom suppliers. However, high international callers appeared to be making use of cheaper alternatives for calls abroad by using indirect operators via calling cards, although there was some confusion over connection charges. Oftel will continue to consider whether further research in this area is required.

Annex F

Consumer information strategy

1. Introduction

1. This document outlines Oftel’s strategy regarding consumer information. Many of the processes described in this document are already in place. Therefore, the purpose of this document is to provide a more rigorous structure to the production of consumer information and to raise awareness internally of the help that the Consumer Information Team can provide.

2. The purpose of consumer information is to change consumer behaviour. If it is not attempting to change consumer behaviour then the effort is wasted. This strategy aims to ensure that Oftel produces consumer information that is designed to, capable of and can be shown to change consumer behaviour. The type of behaviour might vary, for example:

• buying/switching decisions, eg better awareness of the choices, etc;
• complaints behaviour, eg better awareness of rights and availability of redress/resolution;
• usage, eg awareness of costs of international roaming.

3. Certain types of behaviour may be related to competition issues, ie encouraging switching, and therefore be most relevant to promoting competition in a market that is not effectively competitive. However, even in a competitive market there may be issues that need to be resolved by consumer information, eg certain consumer rights may not be articulated by companies and therefore lead to consumers suffering detriment.

4. The three main aims of the consumer information strategy are:

• to ensure that any consumer information Oftel produces is relevant and accessible to consumers;
• to ensure that Oftel makes the best use of its resources when producing consumer information; and
• to enable Oftel to measure the impact of consumer information initiatives.

5. In this context, consumer information refers to any information for consumers including any information on the consumer section of the Oftel website, publicity campaigns, other websites etc, not just consumer guides or leaflets.

2. Assessing requirements for consumer information

6. There are four questions that must be answered regarding each and every consumer information initiative:

• is there low awareness?
  if there is not low awareness, even if there is a problem, it is unlikely that lack of awareness is the problem.
• is there consumer detriment?
  if there is no consumer detriment, then any consumer information initiative would not be an effective use of Oftel resources. Consumer detriment can take more than one form. As stated above, this could be financial detriment due to consumers making the wrong choices due to lack of information or it could be a lack of awareness that leads to consumers not getting the service, redress, etc that they are entitled to.
• is the issue important to consumers and/or Oftel?
  even if there is detriment and low awareness, we should be certain that the problem that affects a sufficient number of consumers or that the detriment is so great that it justifies a consumer information initiative.
• can the issue be resolved by consumer being better informed?
  if a reasonable change in consumers’ behaviour will not resolve the problem (ie the issue is structural), consumer information is not an effective strategy.

7. Diagram 1 shows the process for the initial assessment phase.

Annual review

8. There will be an annual review of consumer information needs. This will comprise a detailed analysis of existing consumer information initiatives and data on consumers’ needs for information. The primary information sources for this review will be:

• the consumer information log, ie the log of all Oftel projects and associated consumer information;
• CRS complaints information; and
• an annual research survey on consumer awareness of rights and opportunities.

9. The Consumer Information Team will carry out this review. The output of the review will be a set of conclusions and proposals for the Policy Group to consider and decide.

10. A supporting business case is necessary for all proposals for consumer information initiatives. This business case will have to address the following issues:

• what behaviour is the information trying to change?
  the problem you are trying to solve and the preferred outcome.
• what group of consumers are affected by the lack of information?
  eg tabloid or broadsheet readers, social grade, sex, location, etc.
• what information sources do these consumers use?
  eg library, citizens’ advice, trading standards offices, the Internet, magazine articles, etc
• what is the best media to use to reach these consumers?
  eg print (leaflets, magazine articles), Internet, radio, TV, etc; how will distribution work to ensure information gets into the right consumers’ hands?
• how will Oftel measure the desired impact?
  eg online survey, return slips in leaflets, etc.
• what will be the cost?
  including research, design, printing, Oftel resource, publicity, etc.

Ad hoc

11. Although there will be an annual review of consumer information, there will still be scope for ad hoc consumer information initiatives. If a project manager believes that consumer information could help address an issue in their area, they need to put together a business case as above. This will require research to support the business case, ie demonstrate detriment, identify the target audience, etc.

12. Any project manager who believes consumer information would be beneficial should contact the consumer information team (see end for contacts). The team can help with the production of the business case and has experience of:

• researching the necessary issues;
• drafting consumer information;
• dealing with designers, printers, distribution companies, plain English and proofing companies, etc; and
• putting together budgets for consumer information.

Diagram 1

3. Producing consumer information

13. After the business case has been agreed by the Policy Group or appropriate board, the consumer information will have to be produced. Diagram 2 provides an example of this process. There are three main strands to this work:

• the copy, ie the text that forms the content of the information;
• the design of the information, whether website, leaflet, etc; and
• targetting, dissemination and monitoring.

14. These three strands of work must proceed in parallel, otherwise there could be delays in the production of the information. As with the process as described in the diagram below, this section will just highlight some of the main issues.

15. Consultation is very important when producing consumer information. This does not mean consulting formally, rather it is circulating to interested parties internally, using the ACTs and other interested parties, such as consumer groups. Someone looking at the information for the first time can lead to interesting and useful comments. It is important that the design is ready at this time, as design is an essential part of encouraging people to notice and read the information.

16. Related to consultation is the use of focus groups and other research methods to assess both the information and the design as part of the production process. At the same time as consulting with interested parties, focus groups should be carried out. This can have an important impact on the content, tone, structure of the document and design. And it helps to ensure that any consumer information will meet consumers’ expectations and requirements.

17. Oftel has been using the Plain Language Commission to provide a clarity check for consumer information. This is quite quick and painless, and can lead to improvements in the text that makes it easier for consumers to understand.

18. Consulting, commissioning focus groups and getting plain language checks are not necessarily too time consuming. However, time for them should be built into the timetable.

19. The final strand of work is targetting and monitoring. The effort put into consumer information will be wasted if it is distributed to people who have no use for it. Distribution plans should already have been described in some detail in the business case put to Policy Group. But this is likely to continue to require development after Policy Group discussion. As this area is essential, no consumer information will be released until a full targetting, distribution and monitoring plan is in place. If this differs materially from what Policy Group agreed, Policy Group must be notified of this.

20. The research carried out for the business plan can tell you who needs the information and what information sources are appropriate, eg library, point of sale, airports, Trading Standards Offices, etc. The organisation of a distribution list and getting agreement from outlets that they will display the information can be one of the most time consuming parts of this process.

21. It is also necessary to have a full monitoring plan in place for the initiative. This will allow you to assess how successful the initiative has been and whether it was value for money. There are many ways in which we can monitor the success of initiatives, eg onlines questionnaires, return forms in leaflets, using consumer research to monitor changes in behaviour. The Consumer Information Team can assist project managers in finding the most appropriate method.

22. If the project manager and the consumer information team cannot reach agreement on a particular point in relation to the production stage, the issue should be referred to a relevant Director for decision. The final product requires sign-off at Director level before printing and distribution begin.

Diagram 2

4. Setting targets for consumer information

23. Oftel needs to set targets for consumer information, as in all other areas of its work. However, realistic targets must be based on experience.

24. Therefore, we plan to develop targets on the basis of the annual review and the monitoring of individual initiatives. By establishing the level of behavioural change for different initiatives, Oftel will be able to establish targets including the level of impact against the cost of the initiative.

5. The consumer information team

25. The Consumer Information Team was set up to provide a core of expertise on the preparation, distribution, and monitoring of consumer information. The team consists of:

• Chris Rowsell (x. 8890, chris.rowsell@oftel.gov.uk)
• Ritu Manhas (x. 5390, ritu.manhas@oftel.gov.uk)
• Chris Smithers (x. 8876, chris.smithers@oftel.gov.uk)
• Karen Metcalfe (x. 8918, karen.metcalfe@oftel.gov.uk)
• Alistair Cox (x. 8733, alistair.cox@oftel.gov.uk)