[glb]I've cut and paste this post as I felt it was getting lost in the OFFCOM - Future of 0870 thread...[/glb]

I would like to follow up, however, earlier parts of this thread on organising and assisting a more widespread response to this latest consultation:  


Quote:

I think a pop up box telling people how to respond to the consultation when people come to the site to get a geographic number would get a lot of responses sent. Especially if there was a form and a Send button to just send off your complaint to the Ofcom email address. If it just listed bullet points and perhaps referred to a thread in the Discussion Forum for those more interested that would probably work.

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There have been over 1,000 views of this thread up until today. If just half of those people sent an opinion to Ofcom it might have some impact. But they won't as things stand. Why? Because it's too much hassle. That's where this site comes in. The organisers and contributors have the expertise to make it easy for casual passersby to submit an opinion to Ofcom, without the need to go to all the trouble of reading the consultation documents. People looking at this site already know the issues - they don't need to read hundreds of pages of formal documents to have it explained to them. So could I suggest that some kind and knowledgeable person sets up a new thread entitled "This is how you send your views on 0870 numbers to Ofcom" (or something along those lines). The top message would provide two things: (1) the email address to which a submission can be sent (It has to be email or nine out of ten won't bother) (2) two (or at most three) of the main points to be made in a submission to Ofcom. The message should be a maximum of 200 words, if that. Make it as easy as possible for the people who can contribute five minutes but no more. Finally, remind people to be brief, clear and polite. Abusive, confused messages won't strengthen the case.

I found your link to the plain english version of the consultation extremely useful and a good place to start to those coming new to this consultation:


Quote:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/nts_forward/nts_pes/

Like many others no doubt, I'm keen to put my penny's worth into this consultation, for what its worth, so please, please can we have your help in setting up a new thread to assist us with this.  In addition, pop-ups for more casual users of this site , links with MoneySavingExpert and maybe PledgeBank.Com, and even suggestions to viral email friends and relatives could only help to gather the momentum for a considerable response to this consultation opportunity.

I think there's something like 6-8 weeks before the deadline to this consultation to gather support so we need to start a campaign to respond asap.  

Regards
Garry

Thanks for doing that, Garry.

This needs to be broken down into smaller more manageable tasks.

First, is there someone who would take on the task of identifying an email address for Ofcom?

wrote on Oct 14^th, 2005 at 10:39am:

...is there someone who would take on the task of identifying an email address for Ofcom?

Contact details are in the consultation documents, but as you ask you're probably not the only one wondering so here they are:-

You can post or fax your comments, marked 'NTS consultation', to:

Clive Hillier
Competition and Markets
Fourth Floor
Ofcom
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA.

Fax: 020 7783 4103

Or, you can e-mail your comments to: nts@ofcom.org.uk

Please note that if you contact us by e-mail, you do not need to send us a hard copy. We do not usually acknowledge receipt of your comments. Please tell us if you want any part of your comments to be confidential. Please also tell us if we can publish your comments when we receive them or whether you'd like us to wait until the consultation period has ended. It will help us if you use the consultation cover sheet (included with the full consultation document and available from our website) when you send us your response.


There's also a coversheet for indicating the latter if you wish, at :-
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/244504/

Ofcom only has one 'F' as does "ofwat" "Ofstead" "oftel" etc etc.

wrote on Oct 14^th, 2005 at 1:48pm:

Ofcom only has one 'F' as does "ofwat" "Ofstead" "oftel" etc etc.

Some of us wish it did have two Fs. It certainly deserves an extra F.

wrote on Oct 14^th, 2005 at 1:52pm:

Some of us wish it did have two Fs. It certainly deserves an extra F.

Lol!  ;D

An extra 'F'?

I don't get it...  :-[

As observed elsewhere, Mr_Asaboa seems to know a tad too much about Ofcom?

Is that a bad thing? ???  

It could be if it's inside knowledge?

I'm not sure about that one - Mr_Asaboa can't seem to spell OFSTED properly!  If he was an OfCOM insider he'd know the peoper name of another regulator, or are OfCOM staff too ignorant to bother to take note? ;)

Haha, I like the conspiracy theories surrounding me! Let me make this clear - I am NOT an Ofcom fan, I am guilty of not always expressing myself entirely clearly though and that is something I strive to work on.

To clear up I think that they have been less effectual than they should be, but I think some of the critisism is a tad OTT. I think sometimes people are unrealistic in their expectations, that's all I meant to say. Hope that clears things up. Plus, I don't think I know "too much about things", in fact I've already been corrected in something I stated about them by NGMan.

Hope that clears things up and puts my position on Ofcom more clearly.

Oh and in my experience of things what Smasher said is probably true. Regulatory bodies rarely tend to know anything about the remits of what other bodies do. Result: continually being passed from one body to another. So the chances of them being able to spell each other's names is probably minimal too!!  ;D

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Ofcom only has one 'F' as does "ofwat" "Ofstead" "oftel" etc etc.

Having started this thread I have to confess to the f*ing spelling mistake!  I think I was feeling too angry about the 0870 issues and too impatient on having my say in this consultation, so much so, the spelling ability of my brain became impaired! I noticed with acute embarrassment as soon as I'd posted it!  Ouch!  Pity we can't edit our postings retrospectively!
Regards
Garry

PS Look forward to further assistance from this site in encouraging a larger scale response to this latest consultation.

wrote on Oct 14^th, 2005 at 1:48pm:

Ofcom only has one 'F' as does "ofwat" "Ofstead" "oftel" etc etc.

What a surprise that Mr Asaboa should pick us up on the correct spelling of OfcoN.

Me thinks he does protest to much that there is no communication between himself and the regulator for the uk telecommunications industry.

Hi gdh82,

You can edit your postings retrospectively. Use the "Modify" option.

Hi Dorf,

Thank you very much for your post - I didn't know it was possible to modify a post retrospectively!!!

OFFCOM is now OFCOM !!!:-X My embarassment ends!  8)

wrote on Oct 17^th, 2005 at 5:45pm:

Hi Dorf, Thank you very much for your post - I didn't know it was possible to modify a post retrospectively!!! OFFCOM is now OFCOM !!!:-X My embarassment ends!  8)

But now you have gone and reminded us all of your embarassment. ;)

wrote on Oct 15^th, 2005 at 11:59pm:

And would Jo Blo even have heard of Ofstead and Ofwat I wonder?  On the other hand an OfcoN person would only too well aware of all the Ofs out there. ;)

To answer your point I think that yes, anybody who reads papers would probably know about these.

For example, Thames Water recently came under critisism (sp) from Ofwat for all their leakage problems. And I'm always reading about Ofsted inspections. Obviously I've heard of Ofcom and Oftel (no longer exist). In fact I know that Ofcom is short for the Office of Communications, Oftel was Office of Telecommunications and Ofsted is the Office of Education. No idea what Ofwat is though...Office of Water?!?!  ;D

I assume there are others but I don't think I've heard of them. Still, not bad for a barman!! ;)

wrote on Oct 18^th, 2005 at 12:05pm:

For example, Thames Water recently came under critisism (sp) from Ofwat for all their leakage problems. And I'm always reading about Ofsted inspections. Obviously I've heard of Ofcom and Oftel (no longer exist). In fact I know that Ofcom is short for the Office of Communications, Oftel was Office of Telecommunications and Ofsted is the Office of Education. No idea what Ofwat is though...Office of Water?!?!  ;D

It seems to me that you are a lot better informed than the average 19 year old who would know only who was No 1 in the charts last week and who was in The House during the last Big Brother.

Of course most of us grumpy old men in our 40s on here who have become householders inevitably have the misfortune to know all about such things.

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But now you have gone and reminded us all of your embarassment.

Shhh! NGN Man -  I was hoping nobody would notice  :P

wrote on Oct 18^th, 2005 at 12:19pm:

It seems to me that you are a lot better informed than the average 19 year old who would know only who was No 1 in the charts last week and who was in The House during the last Big Brother. Of course most of us grumpy old men in our 40s on here who have become householders inevitably have the misfortune to know all about such things.

Hahaha! :D I've even been known to read The Observer on occasion.  ;)