Broadband comes under Welsh consumer policy scrutiny

Marjorie Delwarde | ping wales | Friday 01 July 2005

[Edited excerpts]

‘Making It Happen- Consumer Policy In Wales' will be held next week in Cardiff. The conference, organised by the Welsh Consumer Council, will focus on putting consumer rights at the core of government thinking and decision-making.

It will include a workshop focused on The Communications Agenda for Wales, which will be chaired by John Wilson, consultant and member of the Wales Broadband Stakeholder Group.

The workshop will also bring together a panel of key stakeholders, including Michael Eaton, director of Broadband Wales, Welsh Assembly Government, Rhodri Williams, director of Ofcom Wales, and Charles Bass, chair of the Wales Broadband Stakeholder Group

Wilson describes the session as "An honest exercise to articulate a communication agenda for Wales." He says the debate will follow a public interest rather than commercial agenda and will take place against a background of communications policy failure, resulting from the government's privatisation of BT some 20 years ago and centralised management.

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Wilson says, "We need appropriate regulation for Wales. We want to engage in a healthy dialogue. The challenge is to explore where agendas from stakeholders differ and where they converge. We hear a lot about "convergence" in terms of technology, network, devices- "digital convergence"- but one can argue we need a convergence of policy agendas.

He hopes that the debate will highlight shared agendas and convergences and encourage people to look ahead and define the priorities. According to him, the Welsh consumer agenda should focus on regulatory issues such as access, affordability and also effective use. Indeed Wilson thinks there is no point having access to broadband if there is no proper content or if people don't have the skills to use communications technology.

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