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By editorial@silicon.com, 25 October 2000 17:30

COMMENT There in black and blue (the site's colour scheme, not the state of David Edmonds after 12 rounds with an unforgiving press) are its "functions", "duties", and "goals". Duties include a mandate to "promote the interests of consumers", and to "maintain and promote effective competition". Meanwhile, the goal could not be simpler. "Oftel's aim is for customers to get the best possible deal in terms of quality, choice and value for money," it says. Given its role as consumer champion you would expect Oftel to back calls to make price comparisons between competing telcos available to all. Not so. Back in 1998, Ocean Solutions sought to create such a comparative table, detailing tariffs and costs of services aimed at business customers. Some of the telcos concerned readily complied, others declined and when Ocean asked Edmonds to intervene he concluded that there "was not an appreciable effect on competition from companies not publishing their prices". Today, Oftel sees no reason to change that view. Legally, it is within its rights to do nothing. But its inaction does appear to fly in the face of the goals and duties it so openly adopts. Opponents of such schemes will say 'why target telcos when computer software and hardware firms keep pricing firmly under wraps?' Part of the answer lies in the history of the telecommunications industry. Across Europe, the end of state run monopolies has been a slow and painful process. The paradox is a regulator is vital to ensure safe passage to deregulation. That's the big picture. A more practical answer is that telco pricing is such a (deliberately) complex issue, companies - and small companies in particular - need help in making calls on 'value for money'. One silicon.com source said it took a telecoms specialist over a month to complete a meaningful comparison of Swedish mobile phone operators. If schemes such as those promoted by Ocean save small businesses a month or more of pain, they should be welcomed and not dismissed, as Oftel appears to have done.