The Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) (''the telecommunications regulator'') was a department in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
government, under
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
control, charged with promoting competition and maintaining the interests of consumers in the UK
telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
market. It was set up under the
Telecommunications Act 1984 after privatisation of the nationalised operator
BT.
Oftel was accused by critics such as
Freeserve of having been "
captured" by BT, and of giving the dominant operator too much freedom to leverage its
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
status in fixed line telephony into other markets such as
ADSL.
On 29 December 2003, the duties of Oftel were inherited by
Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-rang ...
, which was the result of the consolidation of five separate British telecommunications, radio spectrum and broadcasting regulators.
Director-General of Oftel
*Bryan Carsberg 1 August 1984 – 12 June 1992
*Bill Wigglesworth (acting) 13 June 1992 – 31 March 1998
*
Donald Cruickshank 1 April 1993 – 31 March 1998
*
David Edmonds 1 April 1998 – 29 December 2003
External links
Archive of Oftel official websiteOftel - Annual Report 1992
See also
* UK Telephone area (STD) codes
* UK topics
Notes
Communications authorities
History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom
Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom
Regulators of the United Kingdom
Telecommunications organisations in the United Kingdom
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