OFTEL and the Select Committee (4 March 1999) OFTEL presented a submission on Internet access costs to the Trade and Industry Select Committee Enquiry into e-Commerce. Select Committee proceedings are not published in Hansard (although we have asked a friendly MP to try to get a transcript if one was produced) but, fortunately, OFTEL published their submission. One of the other CUT committee members has posted a detailed response to it. But, in summary, what OFTEL wrote is absolutely incredible, using the same tired arguments we have refuted ad nauseam in Mythbusters. For example, the 'emergency services' excuse is presented as fact (paragraph 36) in the absence of any evidence or even basic details such as 'when' and 'where'. Those details have never been given by anyone. There are two points worth exploring in more detail here, though: Firstly, OFTEL have quite brazenly said (paragraphs 22-24) that 'free' ISPs are good for the consumer, contradicting previous attitudes. We've been doing research into OFTEL's past and found an interesting coincidence on this matter. Secondly, OFTEL use - or don't use - the results of 'studies' and 'analysis' according to taste; they get into a terrible tangle about the number of home Internet users in this country (paragraphs 17-19). This is not surprising as the numbers in published surveys vary by a factor of four ... Because of this I (Alastair) write down one of our previously unwritten rules: We deliberately ignore the flood of survey results that are now appearing. There's usually not the slightest indication of the methodology used to obtain the results: because of this they can't be relied on. And, as for the OECD statistics OFTEL add their own gloss to, here's a comment made immediately on seeing them (see the CUT Forum for the complete original comment and the thread developing from it): The prices quoted by OFTEL are fascinating. My wife (who is Canadian) informs me (and I have checked, she is correct) that they are, at least for Canada, lies. They claim that the cost of using the telephone for 20 hours per month in Canada is approx $23 (Canadian) per month. In Toronto, where she comes from, a local call (everyone in the metropolitan areas has a local ISP, like here) is 5 CENTS for an unlimited time. So in order to reach this sum you would have to make about 460 calls per month. QED. You and I (and the telecommunications operators) pay for OFTEL ... which has produced something worse than anything we, a bunch of amateurs, would produce!