New communications regulator Ofcom
has been slammed by the Communications Management Association (CMA)
for not focusing on business users.
At the annual CMA Conference in London this
week, CMA chairman Carolyn Kimber told delegates, “Our main
industry player - BT - still holds significant market power
according to all the figures, therefore a lot more needs to be
done. It is certainly not a competitive marketplace.”
“We need a strong regulator, but according
to the Ofcom remit, the main focus is on the 'citizen consumer',
but how about the 'business consumer?'," she said.
But Ofcom chairman Lord Currie said that
while Ofcom’s remit was set by government to focus on the majority
of users, namely consumers, there was no explicit exclusion of the
business community or any other group by the government legislation
that created Ofcom.
“When I was in charge of the Ofgem utilities
watchdog, it was the large business users who helped to shape the
market decisions that had to be made to further open up the market,
and there is no reason to think that the CMA cannot have a similar
effect in opening up the telecoms market further - you have the
muscle to make sure your providers are serving you,” he told
delegates.
But the power of the UK regulator was
disputed by Ewan Sutherland, executive director of Intug
(International Telecommunication Users Group), the organisation
which links national telecom users’ groups.
Sutherland said that Ofcom's budget may
compare favourably with regulators in other countries, and indeed,
in some countries it is seen as positive that there is little
regulation of telecoms.
But the real measure of regulation “should
be the difference between the amount spent by incumbent companies
like BT on regulatory staff and award-winning economists and that
of the regulator”, he added.
Sutherland said that BT had won hands down
on cash spent on regulation when Ofcom’s predecessor Oftel was
around, and that there was “no indication that this situation would
change under Ofcom”.