Responses to the first phase of this PSB Review

By Ofcom Webmaster

Yiannis drew the short straw. Everyone in the team read some of the 270 phase 1 consultation responses. Some read many dozen. Rhona read piled up 13,000 postcards

But only Yiannis read all of the 5,000+ pages of sometimes dense prose, before producing a pithy 20 page summary (pdf) for the benefit of us mere mortals.

Please let us know in the comments below if you think the summary misses anything crucial.

In addition, Ofcom's chairman, David Currie, gave a speech on the key PSB issues this morning at the London Buisness School. It's punchy, and well worth a read. Again, comments welcome.

Comments

[Paul Evans]

Yiannis has mentioned the FEU's support for industry levies (though the FEU submission isn't actually that strident about this - it argues that the case needs to be fully considered - a slightly different thing).

But the report misses the main thrust of the FEU's response. The FEU is arguing that OfCOM has an obligation to flesh out proposals for levies based upon spectrum allocation. There are lots of positive examples of this working in Canada, France and elsewhere.

The problem with the way that consultations like this are conducted is that some solutions - ones that may well be the 'least worst' actually don't get considered because no-one is sufficiently incentivised to fully research them.

The FEU argue that this should be the role of the regulator, and that the next stage should include detailed independent research commissioned by OfCOM into this option.

This is the main thrust of the FEU response, and it shouldn't be left out of this summary.