Gobsmacked by Ofcom's foolishness

This media release starts to come close to expressing the extent to which I see Ofcom as having been utterly foolish in choosing the present time for some modest tinkering with the extent to which it tolerates silent calls, whilst prohibiting other activity.

Ofcom has today announced a full blown public consultation on two minor features of the way in which it deals with cases of alleged misuse of a telecommunications network or service that come to its attention.

Ofcom continues to pretend that it is dealing with enforceable "rules", when it has no statutory powers of regulation in this field. The Statement of Policy, which it proposes to amend, bears only on the way in which Ofcom handles cases where it considers issuing a Notification of Persistent Misuse. Only after such a Notification may Ofcom impose an enforceable requirement to cease the misuse. A possible financial penalty would normally be applied in the case of a breach of such an enforceable requirement.

This has been done at the time when we are waiting for the longstanding proposal for the maximum penalty available to Ofcom to deal with cases of Silent Calls to be lifted to £2 Million to be presented for parliamentary approval.

Ofcom's tolerance of Silent Calls and its failure to use its powers in the way intended by parliament will be drawn to the attention of the government and parliament. I will now firmly oppose and campaign against the increase to the maximum penalty being granted. Ofcom must be directed to think again before it has the cheek to ask parliament to provide an endorsement of its failed and improper approach.