The Director General of UK telecommunications regulatory authority, Oftel, has proposed a new super-regulator that would be responsible for the regulation of the telecommunications, broadcasting and information technology industries. The proposed new body would be able to issue operating licenses for companies and levy punitive fines on anti-competitive companies. It would also hand policy-making responsibility back to government, and be headed by a committee, rather than an individual. The Oftel Director General, Don Cruickshank, believes that the 1984 Telecoms Act, which legislated for British Telecommunications, is out of date and doesn’t contain sufficiently punitive sanctions for anti-competitive behavior. Instead he suggests that it brought into line with the government’s proposed Competition Bill, which includes European Commission fair trading legislation.
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