The demand curve isn't fixed, but instead can shift. So while it's generally true that a change in price will lead to a change in volumes sold, the reverse doesn't necessarily hold. Rather, telecoms operators are quite aware that demand for their services is growing constantly, partially due to lower prices, partially due to network externalities, service combination, and technological progress. Given this constant increase in usage anyway, operators could well find that to profit maximise they would be best served raising their prices.

Of course, this doesn't take into account the fact that wholesale prices are regulated to fall anyway, so of course things will get cheaper ...

Please tell me that was a made-up figure inserted by a bored Reg hack. Please, for the love of all that is holy, reassure me that the average person in this country is not REALLY watching the goggletube for over a full day out of every week (218*7 = 1526 mins, 25.43hrs). That's over 55 days a year sat on the couch with one's hand in one's pants!! WTF is happening with the people who make up for those like me, who might watch a 15-mins news broadcast per day?*

*(I look around myself in the street, and the glazed expressions on passers-by answers that question about those who watch my other 203 minutes/day....)

Sheee-ehhh. No wonder the uk.gov are able to pull the stunts they do when everyone's more bothered about the latest happening on HomeNeighbourEastOaks Street instead of what's out their front door.

I defy anyone to find me 25 hours' worth of TV in a week that I would be able to watch without clawing my eyes out (leaving aside the entire question of "would I actually sit still and watch it rather than going to the gym/walking the dog/going to the pub/having a, wait for it, **CONVERSATION**?")

And OFCOM are PROUD of this???????

(There's an alien explanation. There has to be.)

Ofcom celebrate the fact we are all in watching TV (partly because the streets are so unsafe and we can't afford to go out) and that means we think they are doing a good job.

How does that work??

There are many reasons that we stay in more and watch more TV (did I say there is nothing to do and the streets are unsafe) but I still think Ofcom is a huge waste of space and does nothing for the end user.

It is still vastly expensive in roaming charges with mobiles, there is nothing to chose on TV apart from reality TV, cooking, DIY and soaps which we are all by law required to pay large amounts for, everyone is fixing phone lines until caught out, 0870 numbers (and the rest) are vastly expensive and ISP's lie and rip you off if you do pay for the top rate lines. Or worse sell all your data to the highest bidder.

"That is what consumers demand and what Ofcom helps deliver."

No, what we demand is correct, what we get is years of griping and moaning against ofcom and the companies until someone caves in, usually the customer as nothing changes and we have to live with it in the end.

but I thought Ofcom's purpose was to REGULATE the communications industry, and to ensure that said industry operates within the framework of the law/regulations.

If so, then WTF do they need "hundreds of highly-paid economists" for?

Enlightenment, please.

Everyone loves Nu Labour and they'll win a landslide 99% in the next election.

Ken Livingston is voted back as Mayor due to his impartial outlook on London.

Petrol is only 25p a gallon still

Betamax tapes are selling well

really, what did you expect...we dont actually do anything, just sabre rattle at BT (who bung us lots of money) when the press get heavy

utter crap report

Paris, cos......well I would, twice ....just to make it well worth the sentence

.. can you expect from a regulator that refuses to regulate. No-one else is going to pack them on the back for the crap job they do, so they have to start spinning to it themselves.

This report is ridiculous. Let me get this right, they are saying that there are only 5 hours left in the day to do other stuff for the average person?

What about going to work!? Surely the average person works a 7.5 or 8 hour day unless they are unemployed & trying to understand what the Chavs are saying on Jeremy Kyle.

Is the UK really as bad as this these days? Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights.

Don't panic Mike, I'm watching your share. There are over 600 TV channels and if you record sensibly you can easily find 3-5hrs a day of reasonable quality viewing. If you have kids it is hugely expensive to go out at night, either with them or without them, so we watch telly and drink wine.

And, btw, I don't know which pubs you frequent, but I never watch TV as boring as the conversations I usually overhear when I do go to them. Can't speak for the average viewer tho ...

218 minutes is under 4 hours, isn't it?

An hour or so when you get up in the morning, a couple of hours in the evening before you go to the pub (for those who can still afford it and still want to) and you're almost there.

And as for those of us who watch documentaries (Aircrash Investigation and the UK History channels are NOT "reality tv") or actually prefer watching escapism tv (I mean anything from Dead^H^H^H Eastenders to Criminal Minds, from the Anime and Sci-Fi channels to Hallmark and the movie channels) to sitting down the poub spending money just to go pi** it up against the wall outside as many others do, are we the stupid ones or is it those who spend ever-increasing amounts of their money lining the pockets of the brewery shareholders?

Or maybe I should rot my brain playing GT3 on my cut-down and overpriced PC-clone then go out and mow downa bunch of pedestrians when I find out the hard way that the laws of physics are a lot less forgiving than an X-Box360 and a couple of bottles of strong cider...

Couldn't be bothered to comment on OfCon. They don't take any notice when ISPs break the law, so why should they listen to us complaining?

This Ofcon of which they speak...

Is this the Ofcon under whose regulation the broadcasters, retailers, and manufacturers have been maintaining a news blackout for months about hundreds of thousands of Freeview set top boxes which have recently died or are about to die because of technical changes to the broadcast signal, changes which most retailers won't know about, most helplines won't know about, etc?

Sorry about long URL, even sorrier it's the Daily Mail, but it's either that or DigitalSpy ;)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044291/Up-250-000-TV-screens-blank-upgrade-leaves-Freeview-boxes-obsolete.html

Or search for Echostar in the DigitalSpy forums seems to find relevant and detailed techy info quite quickly; certainly more quickly than I'll be able to find the receipt for my Echostar doorstop.

Cheers Ofcon, previously it was only your broadband bits I knew to be incompetent...

It's not *that* long since most of the job jobs at Oftel (Ofcon predecessor for the telecoms bit) were occupied by ex-NTL people. Revolving doors, I believe it's called. Snouts in the trough might be a more appropriate description.

What tremendous value the Oral Felch Club Of M25 is. How lucky we would be as a nation if all our quangos were as dilligent, trustworthy and supportive as them... ah, yes of course... that's the actual problem isn't it.

As for "snouts in the trough" ... indeed squire, and noses firmly held in check by the excessive buttock cheeks of the similarly dedicated brown-noser ahead.