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In touch with the future, not fire-fighting?
“I personally think that is how regulators should operate. Convergence is all around us and will accelerate. Information is what makes democracy grow.
“In an industry which is moving so quickly and with so many dimensions, it is absolutely funda- mental that we are able, as regu- lators, to understand that.
“We shall be judged on how well we create a converged vibrant, healthy industry serving society.”
To get there, involves absorb- ing the duties of the current five regulators - the ITC, BSC, Oftel, The Radio Authority and the Radiocommunications agency - plus 130 extra duties handed down by Parliament.
“At the moment, there are about 20 of us here - including the Board. We have set about recruiting 900 - that’s 200 fewer than currently employed by the five. Many will come from the five but we are also recruiting new people. We need expertise from the new industries.
“We need this to be an attrac- tive career move; a place bright young people want to be. We need to strike a careful balance between experience and new blood; keep us ahead of the game. We need people steeped in new technologies, how they are used, what the applications might be.
“Firms, large and small, must be able to plan, invest, get their money back. Our emphasis is on appointing the right kind of people.”
She makes it clear that the Ofcom wage bill be less than the current five but adds firmly: “You can’t do this thing on a shoe- string. You can’t have regulators stuffed away in a corner.”
Turning to culture and values, she asks with charismatic elo- quence and fluency: “What sort of behaviour should we encour- age? What sort of behaviour do we expect to see? How can we best look after the interests of the citizen, the consumer - and understand keenly, the market conditions around us?”
She adds: “We need to look carefully at the way children use the media. It’s quite amazing. Yes, they have dextrous texting fingers but it is the way they har- ness content and information that we must understand.”
With 25 years at BT behind her, (after a Zoology degree from the University of London) Millie Banerjee knows her convergence.
“Just look at the devices: digi- tal radio, digital interactive televi- sion - red button convergence between the remote and the telephone network - the palm- top, 3G phones. My husband - he’s a communications boffin too - says I have a poncy phone because I have a camera on it.”
She also has the kitchen and other rooms wired for her laptop. “Our house is wired to a hub which is connected to normal broadband access. But soon all those ugly wires will be gone. The technology is there for the wire- less house.”
Switching effortlessly to televi- sion, where her insight came as a C4 non executive director, she says: “It is about how people will be viewing content. Look at Big Brother. One audience is watch- ing it on terrestrial TV, another - different audience - on the digi- tal channel.
“People are voting by pressing the red button, people are manipulating the cameras, zap- ping from room to room. People are watching it on the internet where it is streamed all night. It is a complete, global experience.
“And we can have different kinds of satellite access in differ- ent rooms. Children can have one kind of access downstairs, adults another upstairs.”
Leaving her audience breath- less, this Calcutta-born dynamo is likely to be off to the Management Board at the Cabinet Office. Then, catching up on her papers as a Commissioner for Judicial Appointments and having a quick word (plus vision of course) with a fellow trustee at the Carnegie UK Trust. Finally, back across Southwark Bridge to help steer Ofcom into being. Stand by folks.
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