Redesdale floats mobile institute as industry saviour

Rating: Is it too late to avoid restrictive legislation?Great minds think alike. I’ve just read a column by Lord Redesdale, a peer who represents the Liberal Democrats in the UK’s House of Lords. He’s calling for an Institute of Mobile Telecommunications.

That’s one way to resolve the issues I personally have with the way the mobile content industry currently regulates itself. What he’s suggesting is a truly professional body with recognised qualifications for members to handle everyday mobile issues.

The difference between Lord Redesdale and myself is that he’s more concerned with industry problems like cashback scams and the regulation of VoIP networks than he is about the chaos that is mobile content regulation today.

I particularly the like part of his column where he says, “The present system, where the [mobile] networks fight their own corner, might work in the short term for their commercial interest.” How true.

The institute which Lord Redesdale envisages will have all the major players in the industry onboard. He therefore hopes that this body will be able to head off government legislation before an industry populated by “dynamic and innovative entrepreneurs who are instinctively ahead of the game” gets stifled off.

I agree with his premise that such an industry body is needed before the whole sector gets drowned in bureaucracy. But he’s a victim of his own prognostication.

If politicians like Lord Redesdale have already noticed there’s a problem, it’s probably already too late for the industry too get its own house in order before legislation starts to bite.

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