Castles in the air

The news that the government has decided it now won’t bother with a Green Paper for the forthcoming Communications Bill came as little real surprise. The Green Paper was originally scheduled for “toward the end of 2011” but accumulated delays were fatally compounded by Jeremy Hunt’s required appearance before the Leveson inquiry – and the possible need to incorporate lessons from the inquiry in new legislation.  Slightly more surprising, however, was the DCMS explanation for its preferred approach.

“To help inform policy options for a White Paper, Government will be holding a number of half-day seminars. The seminars will cover a range of topics, focussing on key questions in each policy area”. Communications Minister Ed Vaizey added:

“Through these seminars, we will look in detail at how best to drive investment and competition. We want to shape the Communications Bill so that we have the right framework to secure our place as Europe’s tech hub.”

Wow, this is heady stuff.  Only last month, the DCMS guidance notes for its Super-Connected Cities program appeared to endorse the (highly ambitious) ‘EU 2020’ access targets (see para. 2.4); now we have the UK seeming to aspire to broadband dominance.  So what are these key policy questions that the seminars will need to consider?  Structural separation of BT, perhaps?  The application of wholesale obligations to all infrastructure?  National mobile roaming?  Well, no...

The topics nominated for the five seminars are actually as follows:

   

      ·        Driving investment in TV content

·        Competition in the content market

·        The consumer perspective

·        Maximising the value of spectrum

·       Supporting growth in the radio sector

All important subjects, no doubt, but offering little guidance on how to secure, in Hunt’s own words, ‘a communications infrastructure that provides the foundations for growth’.