‘Phone bills set to tumble’ shouted the headlines.   

Ofcom had just announced the imposition of price controls on the charges levied for calls between the UK’s fixed and mobile networks.  The Ofcom announcement quite properly made it clear that these wholesale charge reductions were not directly related to retail prices but hoped that they would be passed on to customers over the next 4 years.    

That caution didn’t concern the headline writers for more than a nanosecond and the story was soon linked to the long-running European saga about excessive mobile roaming charges.  Quite how much phone bill tumbling can be expected from an annual £100m of cost savings shared across the millions of us who make calls to mobiles remains to be seen.   Maybe we should blame ‘climate change’ for this year’s crop of undernourished fig leaves, but the headline writers may have done us all a service whilst leading their readers up the garden path.   

If the DTI and Ofcom and their Select Committee Lordships, all of whom have resisted market intervention to remove rip-off roaming rates, needed evidence of a popular appetite for change then the headlines that so gleefully raised business and consumer expectations will have added to, not diminished, policy pressure. 

Policy developers surprised by mistaken public rejoicing usually take refuge in the notion that modern media-savvy readers surely know better than to believe what they read in the papers.   The snags, the unintended consequences of cunning policy plans, are like safety valves that blow their whistles when they get up a head of steam.   The system is mostly under control and there’s not a peep of protest.   Then, because of some human error, intervention or ‘misunderstanding’, flaws are exposed and confusion reigns.   So we should not worry too much when headline writers leap to unconfirmed conclusions.   They are only doing their job, delivering exactly what they think their readers will buy, and reminding those upstairs that punters make pay days possible. 

For those worried that our process-driven, risk-averse, on-line information society is becoming altogether too oppressive there is more than sufficient evidence that when put under enough pressure system snags will become obvious.   Even better, the good news is that these snags can be triggered quite casually – especially under the intense scrutiny of the Internet world.   Whether for adverts or headlines, and now regulatory policy pronouncements, it cannot only be all those media studies graduates who have learned to ask ‘Why are they telling me this?’   

The human condition, our own individual ability to see things from different viewpoints, will always confound the best laid plans.    Way back in the very earliest days of online shopping The Lord Hesketh declared his enthusiasm for ordering his weekly groceries from Tesco.   Alas, even for this pioneering Internet enthusiast, his first attempt was disappointing.  He phoned to enquire about the non-delivery.  ‘I’m so glad you called’ said the embarrassed Tesco manager.    ‘Our van driver has been out 3 days in a row.  He can’t find a pub called The Lord Hesketh anywhere in the area.’ 

And even now, in our supposedly process perfect eCommerce world, the snag factor remains the human element.   Special delivery instructions?  ‘Please leave parcel in green bin – except on Mondays.’

This feature was first published in the April 07 issue of NetworkingPlus magazine