The consultation document — 128 page PDF — is here. My random observations:

– Overall, I’m confused by the complexity of the document. It’s mainly aimed at the industry — that’s clear. As a consumer, and not a very technical person, I was confused by most of the document. It’s hard to completely fault Ofcom in this respect because the subject matter is complicated, but still the regulator could have done a better job with some FAQs or a special ‘dummies’ section for people like me.

– Figure 5 (show people’s preferences for Digitial Dividend spectrum) appears to improperly to specify the mean of ordinal variables. I recall from statistics that such a measurement is flawed.

– Ofcom’s statements about HDTV are becoming more and more sanguine as the evidence mounts that it is the future of television. Recall in Dec 2006 Ofcom stated: ‘It is possible that [HD TV] will become the new standard for broadcasting – consumers may come to expect universal access to public service broadcasting in HD, just as they do now in colour. But the evidence for reaching a verdict on that claim now is lacking – most research suggests that HD is seen as a premium consumer product, rather than a significant source of value to society as a whole.’ I doubt Ofcom would make such a statement again…

– Section 7 of the document shows what a political battle this really is. It seems that the DCMS will have much say over what happens, with significant input from Ofcom. I wonder where regulated firms will direct their lobbying? Either way, the outcome looks somewhat certain: Continued state intervention at a very significant level in determining who does what and how.

– Ofcom propose a beauty contest to assign spectrum resulting from the new capacity. I thought the beauty contest was a relic of the old school? Ed Richards told Parliament in April 2007 — in the context of DDR — that the era of free spectrum was over. It seems inconsistent for Ofcom to take that position in the big DDR and abandon it in the mini-DDR.

– Ultra high speed broadband is really the future — not DTT. Here in the U.S. last night I was on the Xbox Live platform on a high def television. That is the future, folks, and it’s got music and HD television and movie downloads, tournament gaming, etc. It’s stunning in high def and you can easily see why these games consoles are overtaking Hollywood for younger people. This is why the work of the Broadband Stakeholders Group is so critical.