Spectrum auctions and continued deregulation are key priorities f...

said a major challenge now will be to ensure its decisions actually deliver for competition, quality and the consumer. It listed 9 priorities for the coming year, including: (1) Releasing and liberalizing spectrum, facilitating spectrum trading and raising awareness of the opportunities offered by a more market-led approach to spectrum management. (2) Continuing to explore areas in which unnecessary regulation can be lifted. (3) Ensuring that British Telecom complies with its agreement to give rivals equivalent access to its network in order to spur competition. (4) Considering whether to regulate core and access next-generation networks. (5) Continuing work on public service broadcasting issues. (6) Examining potential benefits to citizens and consumers of new methods of content delivery, the implications for regulation and how to ensure children are protected. Ofcom said it will also continue to protect consumers and citizens by, among other things, helping them transition to DTV, and to promote access to broadband. The regulator also wants to influence regulatory policy on the international scale during the EU review of its e-communications regulatory framework, debate over the draft directive on TV Without Frontiers, and the most important set of spectrum negotiations in over 40 years.