Christmas list from Ofcom

“In many ways, infrastructure underpins the other elements of the value chain – it enables content and service delivery and as convergence continues it is increasingly relevant to a wider range of devices…” 

It’s so refreshing to read these words, particularly when they come from the industry regulator.  Ofcom’s draft Annual Plan, for 2013/14, published just before Christmas, includes this statement in its commentary on the continuing evolution of the communications environment.  As in previous years, however, Ofcom remains reticent about its precise role in the development of the country’s broadband networks - it is not until the document’s focus on ‘emerging issues’ that we find the following: 

“Another potential work area may be to continue to advise or to provide our expertise to the Government in meeting its targets for UK broadband and superfast broadband coverage”

If Ofcom seems a trifle lukewarm about this potential involvement, I was nonetheless gratified to read that it anticipates doing more in relation to the resilience of our public networks:

“To date our activity has focussed on ensuring that the largest communications providers can demonstrably follow industry best practice. However, as communications services become increasingly important to consumers, citizens and the economy, there may be increasing calls for Ofcom to adopt a more proactive role, beyond our regular infrastructure reports, in securing a resilient critical national infrastructure”

This heightened awareness of network security is well taken: as the ‘Digital Britain’ report noted in 2009: “sudden removal of communications would not only bring business and commerce to a halt, but also our traffic, public services, finance, energy supply and much of our personal interaction.”