Labour To Call For ITC Oftel Merger

The Labour party is to call for a single watchdog to oversee the telecommunications and broadcasting industries. In a document outlining the party’s approach to the information superhighways, Labour will suggest that Oftel, the telecoms regulator, and the ITC should be merged into a new regulator that will be divided horizontally.

This would remove what Labour sees as the bureaucracy facing cable companies when applying for an operating licence. At present they have to apply to both regulators.