With operators everywhere trying to push up prices for their services (see today's lead story on Orange) even as the competition they all profess to love so much continues to force tariffs down, some organisations are resorting to what can only be described as "minority" and "niche" markets to raise a bit of extra cash, as Martyn Warwick reports.
Ofcom, the UK's uber-regulator of telecoms and the media, is, not for the first time, turning its attentions to maritime radio. Ofcom has tried this on before, and the last time it dipped its metropolitan toes in the briny it got a lot more splashback than it expected.
Then the regulator managed to alienate and antagonise the seagoing fraternity and landlubbers alike by floating the suggestion that lifeboats should pay the going market rate for bandwidth.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is one of Britain's favourite and best-regarded charities. It is completely independent of government and is funded entirely by charitable contributions from the public. The RNLI boats, crewed only by volunteers, save many lives every year and many lifeboatmen have paid the ultimate price, dying in the most appalling weather conditions whilst saving their fellow men.
Unsurprisingly, Ofcom's ill-judged effort to scrape up a few extra pounds met with public outrage and Ofcom seems to have learned its lesson - in that particular regard, at least.
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