By: Russ
News alert: Ofcom’s Stephen Carter opposes ‘happy slapping’, internet suicide pacts
I’m back in the U.K. and what do I find?
The Times published a human-interest-style interview with Stephen Carter of Ofcom yesterday. The articles portrays the BT settlement as successful and…finished. We’re told:
Finding a solution that would benefit consumers and end persistent
complaints from rivals while not alienating BT (which was threatened with being
broken up) was not going to be easy.But, to Carter�s obvious relief, he found an answer � forcing the
former monopoly to carve out a special new division, employing some 30,000
staff, to oversee the local network � which appears to have kept everyone happy.BT remains whole, its critics have been appeased and consumers have
been promised a world of cheaper calls, more competition and a host of new
services.Achieving this outcome was not, concedes Carter, a walk in the park.
�Did I lie awake at night? You bet I did. It could have gone terribly wrong,� he
says.
It still can.
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