UK telecoms regulatory trends for 2024

Ofcom’s priorities

Ofcom has published its proposed Plan of Work setting out its priorities for 2024-2025 structured around four themes: (i) an internet we can rely on; (ii) media we trust and value; (iii) we live a safer life online; and (iv) enabling wireless services.

The draft work plan is open for consultation until 9 February 2024 and provides an insight into Ofcom’s priorities. We have picked out key elements to follow below:

• Online safety - Ofcom will develop and consult on its approach to implementing the Online Safety Act (the UK’s online safety legislation covering illegal and harmful content):
  
  • Consultations on illegal harms and age verification to prevent children accessing pornography are ongoing until February-March 2024 and will lead to illegal harms codes of conduct and risk assessment guidance by early 2025.
  • A consultation on the protection of children will commence in Spring 2024 with a view to Codes being published in 2025;
  • Separate consultations and Codes/guidance are expected over the next two years. Bird & Bird is hosting a roundtable to discuss the illegal harms consultation and prepare a submission to Ofcom on 30 January 2024 (please register here);
• Nuisance calls and scams - Ofcom will continue to monitor nuisance calls and scams, and plans to consult on new rules related to scam messages in Q1 2024;
• Video-sharing platform regulation (VSP) – the VSP regime will be subsumed into the online safety regime and VSP legislation will be repealed. A VSP strategy will be published in early 2024.
• Telecoms security – Ofcom will monitor compliance with the new telecoms security obligations under the Communications Act as amended by the Telecoms Security Act (TSA), with the first deadline for compliance for Tier 1 providers with over £1billion of annual turnover falling on 31 March 2024:
  
  • Ofcom is also currently consulting until 1 March 2024 on revised guidance on network and service resilience under the TSA which will lead to fresh guidance in 2024;
• Consumer protection and affordability – Ofcom’s Pricing Trends report is expected Q1 2024, and a consultation is also open until 13 February 2024 on measures to limit inflation-linked in-contract price rises for phone, broadband or pay TV contracts and provide greater price transparency;
• Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review – Ofcom will launch a consultation in Q4 2024 as part of its review of wholesale fixed telecoms markets, to inform new rules which will cover the period April 2026 to March 2031;
• Spectrum – Ofcom will prepare to award spectrum in the 26GHz and 40GHz mmWave bands for mobile use with an information memorandum expected Q2 2024 (pending a competition review of the proposed merger between Vodafone UK and Three UK). Ofcom will separately make shared access licences available in the 26GHz band and consult on the award of spectrum at 1.4GHz for mobile use in Q1 2024;
• Wholesale Voice Markets Review – Ofcom will launch a consultation from Q1 2025 as part of its review of wholesale voice termination markets to inform rules for the period April 2026 to March 2031. Ofcom will also monitor the market for wholesale SMS termination and its impact on the retail business messaging market to assess if regulatory intervention is needed;
• Media Bill – the Bill is currently passing through Parliament (see below) and will require various work streams from Ofcom depending on its final form.

New legislation

The current UK Government proposed a series of new legislation in the King’s Speech in November (a constitutional event similar to a state of the union address). Key announcements relevant to telecoms regulation included:

• Law enforcement/encryption – proposed changes to the Investigatory Powers Act could require technology companies to notify the Government of security changes to telecommunications services that could affect authorities’ access to data, including where encryption is deployed;
• SIM farms – the Criminal Justice Bill proposes a new criminal offence of possessing or supplying a SIM farm, which is defined generally speaking as a device consisting of five or more SIM cards capable of making calls or sending SMS. Defences are available where a person has good reason or lawful authority;
• Media – Proposals in the Media Bill include promoting the delivery of public service content through digital platforms ensuring that public service content is available prominently online. It will also expand accessibility requirements to TV-like services and the most popular Video on-Demand (VoD) services.

Of note, the UK Government had previously announced that it would update the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations to cover supply change risks. It is now uncertain whether the Government will propose new legislation before the next General Election in 2024.

Next steps

Online Safety will likely be a key theme in 2024 given the scale of organisations affected (estimates claim that up to 100,000 organisations are in scope of the new legislation) and the deliverables expected from Ofcom to implement the regime.

Another key theme will be telecoms security through Ofcom’s role in implementing the Telecoms Security Act (TSA), as well as the implementation of separate telecoms product security requirements by the Office for Product Safety and Standards which will come into force from 29 April 2024 (see our separate blog here). Other major events will be the forthcoming reviews of wholesale access and voice markets and, more broadly, the upcoming General Election will also affect trends in telecoms regulation and potentially refocus the themes outlined above.

For more information, please contact Rory Coutts.

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