June Panel meeting
15 June 2009
As always a lively and wide ranging set of discussions at the Panel. Some areas of wider interest include:
Mobile coverage: Over the past six months the Panel has got increasingly interested in problems with mobile coverage, so we commissioned a piece from the advisory team on what we might do to raise this issue up the agenda. The problem is that while the coverage statistics say that almost the whole of the country is covered, consumer and small business experience says otherwise. Technical details about the way the data is collected and reported can explain this difference, but the existing data gives a misleadingly good picture and the fact is that we don't really know how big a problem coverage is.
There are two kinds of issues for consumers and small businesses: some people are unable to get network coverage in their home or office and even more people are unable to get reliable coverage when using their phone when traveling. The Panel agreed that the next step for us is to find out more about the consumer experience of mobile coverage so we can establish how much of a problem it is for people and so how much importance we should attach to raising the profile of the problem.
ADR and complaints handling: We had a very interesting discussion with the Ofcom team working on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and complaints handling. We have always been supportive of proposals to reduce the time companies have to resolve complaints before consumers can go to ADR (from 12 to 8 weeks). But ADR remains a last resort, so getting complaints handling right inside service providers is a big prize that the Panel are interested in talking more about.
Colette Bowe: Colette came to her first Panel meeting as Chairman of Ofcom. We had a good discussion about the things on her personal agenda. These were highlighted in the Select Committee hearing, prior top her appointment: broadband, disability and digital switchover. These are, of course, all issues the panel are also concerned with. We also talked about some of the things that have been on the Panel's mind over the last few months and that we have been discussing with Ofcom staff. Colette will return to the Panel in six months or so and in the meantime, she and I will meet for a catch up every six weeks or so. These opportunities to speak direct to the Chairman of Ofcom have been a feature of the Panel from the very beginning and are a very important part of the special working relationship that we have with the regulator.
Anna