There is a distinct Northern Ireland flavour to the ACTs page in this edition of Oftel News beginning with Telecoms 2002 - Communications: The way forward.

On 7 March 2002 the Northern Ireland Advisory Committee on Telecommunications (NIACT) will hold its annual conference at W5, Belfast's new Interactive Discovery Centre in the Odyssey Complex, with the generous support of Hutchison 3G and BT Northern Ireland.

This informative half-day conference, will address many of the issues that the telecommunications industry is facing and aims to throw light on the new technologies and their practical applications.

OFCOM, the Office of Communications, will come into being in the next two years and will mean enormous change for industry and consumer alike. The Director General of Telecommunications, David Edmonds, explained what the creation of OFCOM will mean for Northern Ireland's communications consumers. Representatives from the other regulators whose responsibilities will be absorbed by OFCOM (the Radiocommunications Agency, the Radio Authority, the Independent Television Commission andthe Broadcasting Standards Commission) will explain what it means for their organisation and for consumers in Northern Ireland.

Guest speaker Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment for Northern Ireland, has recently initiated a project to design a new Consumer Strategy for Northern Ireland. He will be launching this project at the conference with a look into the future of consumer representation for Northern Ireland. Bob Twitchin, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Telecommunications for Disabled and Elderly People (DIEL), will explore issues affecting older consumers and people with disabilities.

The conference will also feature workshop sessions to address specific issues in detail. The first is on health issues surrounding mobile phone technology - how safe is this technology and what has happened since the Stewart Report? The second deals with cyber crime - how safe is it to conduct business online, and how do consumers safeguard themselves against fraud? The third is a case study - how do companies use broadband Internet access, why is it useful - and is it worth the money?

All the main operators in Northern Ireland will be exhibiting, and visitors will have an opportunity to see - and perhaps even play with - all the latest gadgets! In the last few years this annual event has become a major telecoms event in the Northern Ireland calendar.

Congratulations

NIACT's Secretary John Stringer received an OBE in the New Year's Honours List. As well as serving as NIACT Secretary, John has been involved with the Chamber of Commerce organisation in Northern Ireland for over 30 years, was its President for two years, and Chief Executive for the last eight years. He will be retiring from the Chamber this year. This has been the best retirement gift he could hope for!

For further information on the work of the ACTs, please contact the ACT Secretariat (tel: 020 7634 5301, fax: 020 7634 8924, text: 020 7634 8769 or e-mail actsec@acts.org.uk). The ACTs website is at www.acts.org.uk.