William H. Dutton

Anna Bradley, Chair of Ofcom’s Communications Consumer Panel, is visiting the OII on 6 May 2010. She will give an informal talk, from 16:30-17:30, in the OII Seminar Room at 1 St Giles. The panel has been active in a variety of issues, such as in focusing attention on actual versus advertised broadband speeds. Anna [...]

A new plan for increasing digital participation — getting more Britons online in four years, has been posted at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/uploads/plan-digital-participation.pdf It was launched today, 2 March 2010, by the Minister for Digital Britain, Stephen Timms. Ofcom’s Stewart Purvis, who coordinates a consortium of actors addressing digital participation, summarized the aim of the plan in an [...]

HM Treasury recently organized a consultation on the ‘implementation of the new Landline Duty to help fund the roll-out of Next Generation Access to 90 per cent of Britain by 2017.’ I’ve been critical of this proposal, which arose from the Government’s June 2009 Digital Britain White Paper. The idea was to impose a tax [...]

The OII has posted a new Policy Briefing written by our Visiting Associate Tony Wales, former General Counsel of AOL International, responsible for the company’s worldwide legal affairs outside the US. He offers his insights on issues arising from the UK Government’s Digital Britain report (June 2009) and Digital Economy Bill, focusing in particular on [...]

Ofcom has four Advisory Committees to connect Ofcom to the views and interests of people within the nations and regions of the UK. The site has been up-dated to reflect the new composition of the committees, their responsibilities, and terms of reference. I would encourage you to follow the work of these committees, and let [...]

Yesterday, we launched the 2009 Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) report, which nicely coincided with the recent release of the Government’s Digital Britain white paper. Jack Riley of the Independent caught an issue raised by our study, which questions the infrastructure focus of Digital Britain, suggesting that more emphasis should be placed on addressing the beliefs [...]

An interim report, entitled ‘Digital Britain’, outlines a set of proposals by the UK government that should have major implications across all sectors of information and communication policy and practice in the UK and beyond. The report is available at: http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx Let me encourage you to read and comment on the report at a public [...]

On 5 February, 2009, Ofcom announced my appointment as the new chair of its Advisory Committee for England (ACE). I will also be the member for the South East Region, working with seven other new members and a continuing member, Anne Scorer, who was appointed in 2005. The mission of ACE is to provide advice [...]