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Annual Report and Accounts 1999-2000 |
Once again, I am pleased to be able to report a further year in which the Agency has played a key role in the new knowledge economy.
This year saw the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Agency. Over that period, digital technologies have transformed the way we live, work and communicate. The astonishing growth of the Internet has the potential to revolutionise society. The convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting and computing, which the Internet exemplifies, will have a profound impact on communications generally and on demand for spectrum in particular. As I remarked in my statement last year, radio is once again at the cutting edge of progress.
A successful knowledge economy depends on the exploitation of ideas and information. This cannot happen without communications. No other communications medium can match the versatility of radio in being able to support both mobile services and the rapid and cost-effective roll-out of fixed networks. Spectrum has become a staple raw material of the knowledge economy. The Agency's task of making frequencies available for new and existing services has assumed growing importance in achieving the Government's ambitions to keep the UK at the leading edge of the information revolution and to make the UK the best place in the world for electronic trading. The key role the Agency plays in realising the Government's information age vision was recognised during the year when I was delighted to welcome Stephen Byers MP, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and Patricia Hewitt MP, Small Firms and E-Commerce Minister, to Wyndham House.
As set out more fully elsewhere in this report, the Agency has continued to promote innovation and growth. Two examples illustrate the unique versatility and power of radio and the Agency's role in opening up new opportunities for businesses in the knowledge economy.
Just before the end of the year, we commenced the first auction in the world of spectrum licences for the revolutionary new generation of mobile telephones (known as Third Generation or 3G), which will offer high-speed Internet access, broadcasting and other services delivered on the move. This was, of course, the culmination of a considerable amount of preparation. I am pleased to report that the auction went extremely smoothly and has now been successfully concluded. This was a notable achievement.
Press coverage focused on the amount of revenue raised but this misses the point. Real success will be measured in terms of the speed of introduction of 3G networks to bring these exciting new services to consumers, not the amount raised by the auction.
I strongly believe that an auction is the best way of putting licences into the hands of those who can make best use of them and maximising the economic and consumer benefits. Concerns about the amounts paid for licences by businesses that are in a far better position than the Agency to assess their value are misplaced.
The second development I would mention is that, last summer, we began consultations on the licensing of Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA), which will provide fast Internet access and a range of advanced services, such as video on demand, to homes and businesses. BFWA illustrates the potential for radio to introduce new competition to wired telecommunications networks and nicely complements 3G in the provision of information age services for the modern knowledge economy. We are aiming to offer the first BFWA licences by the autumn.
These two developments, exciting though they are, form just the tip of the iceberg as far as the Agency's activities are concerned. This report records elsewhere a number of diverse and important developments in other parts of the spectrum, including on the all-important inter-national front, where developments were dominated by the preparations for the biennial World Radio Conference in Istanbul in May 2000, which is the apex of international radio regulation. I attach great importance to the high international profile and leadership the Agency has achieved. I see this as essential to increasing our influence to represent UK interests effectively.
All this activity well illustrates that the pace of technical and market change is rapid and accelerating further. This poses testing challenges for the Agency. We are meeting them by honing existing spectrum management techniques; developing innovative tools, such as administrative pricing, auctions and trading, to make spectrum management more responsive and dynamic; and improving business processes through the use of modern information systems to develop our electronic trading capacity. As related elsewhere in this report, we are developing a pilot for electronic assignment delivery - 'e-spectrum management' -and are making increasing use of electronic communication through our popular and highly regarded website. My aim is that the Agency should be the best spectrum manager in the world and an exemplar of electronic government.
We are also pioneering the use of scenarios to help make our forward planning more effective and robust in the face of considerable uncertainty. We commissioned scenario specialists NerveWire to look 10 years ahead and produce a range of possible futures for convergence. These scenarios are not predictions. Nor do we intend to try to influence events towards one or other of them. But, by considering a range of possible outcomes, we can develop more robust polices and be better prepared for the inevitable changes that will continue to occur. We have now published the scenarios on the Agency's website for comment.
Other noteworthy developments during the year included the successful removal of the Agency's HQ back to Docklands in August 1999, which went smoothly without any interruption to customer service. Another success was the first stage of the implementation of the Agency's new unified licensing system known as RULES (Radiocommunications Unified Licensing Executive System). The Agency is enthusiastically committed to the Modernising Government programme announced by the Prime Minister last year and to delivering high quality, responsive services that meet customers' needs. RULES, and other projects we have in hand, will deliver real and appreciable benefits for our customers in terms of better quality service.
None of this would be possible without our dedicated and able staff. The Agency's 'Investor in People' accreditation last year, awarded at the first attempt, marked our commitment to their training and development. We did not rest on our laurels and opted for IiP reassessment on the shortest possible timescale. To be successful, we had to demonstrate continuous improvement in staff management and communications effectiveness. I am pleased to say that the assessor was very enthusiastic about the continuing progress we had made, and confirmed our re-accreditation in June 2000.
I should add that I feel strongly that all staff should have the opportunity to realise their full potential. I am personally committed to inclusive, fair and open personnel policies with equal opportunities for all, and to redressing the present under-representation in ethnic staff.
I have tried to sketch out some of the highlights from the last year. It is not possible in this short statement to do full justice to the full range of the Agency's activities from research and development, through planning and licensing to maintaining spectrum quality. For the full picture, I would urge you to read the rest of this report or to visit our website: www.radio.gov.uk
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| The Management Board, left to right: David Hendon, Chief Executive; Barry Maxwell, Director of Customer Services; Hazel Canter, Director of Spectrum Services; Mike Goddard, Director of Spectrum and International Policy and Chris de Grouchy, Director of Corporate Services & Facilities. |
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| Mike Goddard, Director of Spectrum and International Policy | Barry Maxwell, Director of Customer Services |
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| Hazel Canter, Director of Spectrum Services | Chris de Grouchy, Director of Corporate Services & Facilities |
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