|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
  |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
||||||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
PRIME MINISTER Report from the e-Minister and acting e-Envoy - 2 May 2000 This is our fourth report to you on progress towards the Government’s goal of developing the UK as the best place in the world for e-commerce. This report gives an overview of developments since our last report. As before, it is structured around the work in hand to deliver the modern markets, confident people and businesses, and leading edge government which the UK needs to succeed. A more detailed report on progress against each of the 60 commitments in our e-commerce strategy, e-commerce@its.best.uk, is attached. Of the 60 commitments 9 have been completed, 9 are behind schedule and 42 are on target. a) Modern markets : getting the market framework right Communications The auction of spectrum for third generation services came to a close on 27 April. Of the five successful bidders, 4 (BT Cellnet, Orange, One2One and Vodafone Airtouch) are incumbent operators and 1 (TIW) is a new entrant. £22.47bn was raised - which signifies the tremendous potential the operators see for m-commerce. Looking ahead, it is important that the UK builds on the lead in m-commerce that an early auction provides and that the Government plays a pioneering role. Significant progress is being made in increasing competition in the telecoms market to provide broadband access. On 5 April OFTEL announced that 14 companies have been selected to take part in trials using BT’s local telephone lines to provide new, high-speed information services. The trials will begin in January 2001 in London (Battersea), Edinburgh, Leeds and Belfast. The target is to begin delivery of service to customers by July 2001 at the latest. BT will be expected to deliver access to its local circuits to other operators and in other areas. OFTEL will continue to monitor these targets. On 3 April, BT announced that it would be making broadband access available to schools, public libraries, FE colleges and citizens advice bureaux at a special tariff, from 2 May. OFTEL has investigated this provision and considers that the service meets the regulatory requirements imposed upon BT. In keeping with the aim of developing broadband services as quickly as possible, we announced on 19 April that there would be another auction of airwaves in September to allow companies to provide cheap, fast access to the Internet through fixed, wireless access. Three licenses will be available in each of a number of regional areas. And the government has invited consultation on the size and number of these areas, as well as other issues connected with broadband fixed, wireless access. Although broadband services in the UK are still mostly at a trial stage, a study commissioned by OFTEL, published on 19 April, showed that prices in the UK are similar to those in other major economies. In the UK, the equivalent monthly charge for DSL residential services ranged from £32-£50, compared to £32 - £75 in the USA, £34 - £48 in France and £33 - £87 in Germany. legal and regulatory framework 'e-commerce@its.best.uk' pointed to the potential for the very fast moving market and technological developments which are associated with e-commerce to give rise to new barriers to competition in electronic markets. It committed OFTEL and OFT to work together to identify any emerging barriers and to make recommendations to ensure that they are addressed. On 17 April OFTEL and OFT published a consultation document setting out their initial conclusions. This found that technological developments pointed towards convergence, vertical integration and further consolidation as the key themes in the market over the coming years, with access to networks and platforms, standards and intellectual property rights likely to be the key e-commerce related issues for competition and regulatory authorities. OFTEL and the OFT are inviting comments on the study, and will produce a final report this Summer. Getting the tax environment right for e-commerce is vital. A key issue for businesses is how the ‘permanent establishment’ concept operates in relation to e-commerce taxation. A Permanent Establishment is traditionally defined as "a fixed place of business through which the business of an enterprise is wholly or partly carried on". Typically it will be a factory or an office, but it has not been clear how this applies to e-commerce businesses. Work on reaching international agreement on this is being co-ordinated by the OECD, but the UK has now taken the lead with the announcement on 11 April by the Inland Revenue that a website of itself will not constitute a ‘Permanent Establishment’ for tax purposes and, additionally, that a server of itself is insufficient to constitute a ‘Permanent Establishment’ of a business conducting e-commerce through a website on that server. Promoting customer confidence in e-commerce is also vital. An important feature of this is the introduction of dispute-resolution procedures for cross-border trading. On 12 April the DTI launched a consultation paper about how e-commerce sales involving websites should be treated under changes to the Brussels convention proposed by the European Commission. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill completed its Commons Committee stage on 6 April. During Committee, Charles Clarke indicated that he was looking at ways of narrowing down, on the face of the Bill, the circumstances when a decryption key rather than the plain text of protected material might be required (e.g. only in exceptional circumstances and perhaps only when authorised at the highest level). We are in touch with the Home Office about this. The intention is to come back with some proposals at Report Stage. In addition, the Home Office commissioned an independent report on the likely cost of the legislation to certain communication service providers. The report, produced by the Smith Group Ltd, identifies a preferred option for interception of communications at Internet Service Providers and Internet-hosted e-mail service providers and recommends that the costs identified for developing this option should fall to the government. The report has been published on the Home Office website and comments invited from interested parties. European Union Patricia led a strong UK delegation to present UK best practice at a Ministerial Meeting on the Knowledge and Information Society in Lisbon on 10-11 April, chaired by Minister Gago of Portugal. This provided an ideal opportunity to stress the importance of e-commerce issues following up on the conclusions of the March Lisbon summit. It also paved the way for developing a concrete eEurope action plan to be agreed at Fiera in June. b) Confident people and businesses Helping small businesses As part of the package of measures to help small businesses get on line, on 4 April David Blunkett launched a government-funded, business-led, online forum. The forum will help small businesses to go online effectively, giving them the all-important best-practice and management skills. On 4 April Peter Mandelson launched ‘Leapfrog to the Information Age’. This is the strategic framework and action plan of the Information Age Initiative for Northern Ireland. The document recommends that ICTs be the top priority for economic growth and encourages all businesses to embrace the technology to survive, compete and grow. The rapid development of the ICT sector in Northern Ireland is also promoted. Helping Consumers Helping consumers to buy music online was the purpose of a report ‘Consumers Call the Tune’ launched by Chris Smith on 5 April. The report highlights the importance of:
Trust The importance of information security to e-commerce was highlighted in a report published by the DTI on 12 April:
c) e-government: exploiting ICT to transform public services Electronic service delivery In driving forward the strategy for information age government, the most significant development was the launch on 3 April, by Ian McCartney, of ‘e-government: a strategic framework for public services in the Information Age’. This focuses on the delivery of better services for citizens and businesses and more effective use of the Government's information resources. The strategy shows how the application of e-business methods throughout the public sector can transform government. It challenges all public sector organisations to innovate, and the centre of government to provide the common infrastructure which is needed to achieve the vision. Another important announcement was made by Ian McCartney on 20 April, that BT had been chosen to design and implement the UK Online portal (a single electronic point of entry for government information and services). Using this, people will be able to customise the home page to create direct links to the services they frequently use. The system will also be able to remind people about changes in services or important dates, such as the need to renew TV licenses or car tax. It will develop over time as new features are trialed and customer feedback is taken into account. In Scotland the First Minister announced that 100% of devolved public services will be online, where feasible, by 2005 – and that the Scottish Executive is discussing with local authority representatives how these targets should apply to council services. ‘e-commerce@its.best.uk’ recommended that international benchmarking should be carried out to compare the UK Government’s electronic service delivery with best practice in the rest of the world. On 12 April, CITU published an interim international benchmarking report. The report set out a structured method for learning from initiatives in other countries and gave some examples of policies and projects by foreign governments comparable to those of the UK
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
