Ofcom launches full-scale mobile review

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said the industry body would look to remove or adapt regulation following the conclusion of its latest consultation.

Ofcom will also look at alternate mobile market models, such as 'receiving party pays', and assess whether they are superior and provide better customer experiences than the current UK model. It will also look at ways to extend mobile coverage across the country.

The consultation, an assessment of the mobile sector titled ‘Mobile citizens, mobile consumers’, is scheduled to conclude in November after a period of gathering feedback from industry representatives.

It is a separate investigation from that into misselling, which is expected to conclude in the coming weeks. Ofcom is to announce its decision on General Condition 23, and whether mobile networks will be held liable for misselling conducted by their retailers – to the tune of 10 per cent of their overall income.

Besides consumer complaints, Richards said the new consultation was also fuelled by changes in mobile technology, such as mobile broadband, the development of femtocells, the re-release of spectrum.

He said: "We want to ask whether there are opportunities for deregulation or changes in regulation that will help promote innovation and competition.

"New technologies require us to ask that question, to remove regulation where it stands in the way and adapt it where necessary."