COMMUNICATIONS
II INTRODUCTION
4. We agreed to conduct an inquiry into the prospects
for a draft Bill on communications policy and a range of related
issues in July 2001 and published broad terms of reference in
November. This work follows on from inquiries undertaken by the
previous Committee during the 1997 Parliament which published
two reports on these issues: The Multi-Media Revolution in
1998, and The Communications White Paper in 2001.[4]
5. The Committee commenced with an informal briefing
in December 2001. We were very grateful to Mr Matthew Horsman,
of Investec Henderson Crosthwaite, Mr Ian Morfett and Mr Peter
Strickland, of British Telecom, and Dr Sarah Pearce, of the Parliamentary
Office of Science and Technology (POST), for getting us off to
a good start. POST's report on public policy and converging digital
communications, e is for everything?, taken together
with the previous Committee's report on the Communications White
Paper, provides invaluable background reading for the issues pursued
further here.[5]
6. We took evidence between January and March 2002
from broadcasters (national and local), providers of telecommunications
and Internet services, the five regulators being absorbed into
OFCOM, the National Consumer Council and others. We concluded
our oral evidence-taking with a session with the Secretary of
State for Culture Media and Sport, Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP and
the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Rt Hon Patricia
Hewett MP, appearing jointly and supported by the Government's
e-Envoy, Mr Andrew Pinder. The full list of witnesses and of the
written evidence received is set out at the back of this volume.[6]
7. We also visited the United States of America in
April 2002 to discuss the US approach to the regulation of the
communications sector with the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) and others and to hear about technological developments
in the areas of digital television and broadband Internet services—and
the economics of bringing these to the market.[7]
4 Fourth Report, 1997-98, HC 520 and Second Report,
2000-01, HC 161. Back
5
Ibid, and op. cit., December 2001, Report 170, POST Back
6
See end of this volume Back
7
See Annex 2 Back
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