Ofcom CEO Stephen Carter’s announcement that he will leave the regulator at the end of this month was accompanied by some interesting press. Today’s FT, for example, states:

As head of the converged regulator that oversees television, radio, telecoms and wireless communications, Mr Carter looks to be one of the most employable people in media and communications.

But also claims:

As chief executive of Ofcom, he has done a good, but hardly stellar job in a far from cut-throat world. But what he can boast is a real understanding of how telecommunications and media are converging into one, highly-regulated, battleground. This strategic vision, more than hands-on management experience, is a commodity in short supply.

My thoughts: From an organisational (hands-on management) perspective, Carter has done a great job piecing together the new regulator. Ofcom, despite its flaws, acts quickly and is not plagued with many of the problems associated with public regulation (eg, over-employment accompanied with bureaucratic blackholes). Ofcom is also staffed with very capable people and does not have a runaway budget.

But Ofcom doesn’t exist just to please itself and employ great people — we expect results. From the perspective of the citizen-consumer, I think Stephen Carter missed some key opportunities to make their lives better. For example, the unreasonably high cost of terminating a mobile call on to another mobile network rips-off the average U.K. resident every day. I don’t care what anyone says, mobile termination charges are rip-offs that would not be tolerated in well-functioning system. Carter should have used his bully pulpit and the full organisatonal might of Ofcom on that issue. I would have liked to see Ofcom solve that problem before it tackled the amazingly esoteric issue of media literacy. In triage, you handle the bleeding patient first. And U.K. consumers are bleeding … bleeding cash. I’ve seen estimates of 10 pounds per month per phone user. Ouch.

Roger Darlington has also written on this site about how Ofcom initially seemed to think that its role in helping consumers was merely a silent coordinating role, and certainly not something the regulator would do itself. The result: it’s a complete mess out there. People cannot possibly be expected to know the myriad of names and acronyms (ICSTIS, Otelo, ASA, etc.) to sort out problems and secure critical information. Now Ofcom is moving in the right direction on this issue, but the initial vision just wasn’t there.

But, of course the big ticket item to judge Carter on is the BT settlement. It’s really too soon to say how that will turn out. So stay tuned…