Using unprecedented access to the key actors inside the UK Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL) and supporting interviews, this book explores how telecommunications regulation works from the inside.

Part I: Introduction 1. Ducts, poles and holes in the ground: the inner world of telecommunications regulation 2. The archaeology of a regulatory regime Part II: Culture and regulation 3. Peculiar place, peculiar culture: organising and structuring the regulatory office Part III: The absolutist myth in regulation 4. 'Oftel c'est moi ': the role of the individual DGT 5. Oftel in space: interdependence and accountability Part IV: Decision-making 6. Regulatory decision styles 7. Price controls and numbering administration: Cartesian-bureaucratic issue-processing episodes 8. Regulating anti-competitive conduct and not regulating hotel phone pricing: adhocratic-chaotic issue-processing episodes 9. Complaint-handling, licence enforcement and anti-competitive conduct II: bargaining-diplomatic issue-processing episodes Part V: Lessons learnt 10. Regulatory science, regulatory policy and possible regulatory futures Epilogue - OFTEL's fourth life-stage? New director general, New Labour, new rules of the game Glossary Bibliography