ABSTRACT
The Director General of Telecommunications and OFTEL is the most advanced of the regulators in developing participative procedures, despite the chaotic nature of the formal arrangements for consumer representation in this industry. To deal with the latter point first, before privatisation telecommunications consumers had been represented through the Post Office Users National Council, one of the stronger of the notoriously weak nationalised industry consumer councils. With the establishment of OFTEL in 1984 the Director General was assisted by a number of advisory committees, including those for consumers in each part of the UK and specialist committees for small businesses and the elderly and disabled. One hundred and sixty four local Telecommunications Advisory Committees were also recognised to represent the interests of consumers, although this system is now under review.11 This complexity hardly encourages coherence in consumer representation and puts a considerable burden on the Director General himself to ensure that the consumer view is represented.
