European Industries Split on Need for and Shape of NGN Regulation
BRUSSELS -- European telecom regulators are hearing “contradictory” advice from communications industry sectors about regulating next-generation networks (NGN), a U.K. Dept. of Trade & Industry representative said here Wed. A chasm separates incumbents, new entrants, cable operators and others who can’t agree on whether NGN marks an evolution or a revolution, much less on the role regulators should play in it, speakers said at a European Commission workshop on identifying policy and regulatory issues. Despite lack of consensus, however, industry and standard-setting groups are racing to exploit a wave set to upend the telecom world.
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Legacy telcos see NGN as a revolution, said European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO) Dir. Michael Bartholomew. Not only does NGN involve a shift from traditional telephony to Internet Protocol-based networks, but it’s also about changing consumer behavior patterns and business models, he said. Because of uncertainty about consumer demand and fear of the unknown, investment in NGN is “highly risky” for operators eyeing a move from fixed to mobile networks and toward providing higher bandwidth on their fixed networks. That calls for a light regulatory approach with no access and tariff rules, Bartholomew said.
Other industry groups pooh-poohed the idea of NGN as revolution. Some alternative operators already have deployed converged networks, said Sandro Bazzanella, regulatory affairs mgr. for the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA). Failure to regulate incumbent NGN networks risks creating new or improved access bottlenecks and harming future competition, he said.
NGN is nothing new to the cable sector, said European Cable Communications Assn. (ECCA) Chmn. Bernard Cottin. Cable operators have been investing in infrastructure and technology for some time, he said, and competition is working very well. The debate around regulating the new networks is “both premature and may be inappropriate,” because no one really has defined NGN and the European Union’s new e-communication regulatory framework is technologically neutral enough to accommodate NGN, he said.
VeriSign Vp-Regulatory Affairs & Standards Tony Rutkowski defined NGN as a “nationwide, worldwide, open IP-enabled public network infrastructure for communications, commerce and content for always-on nomadic people and objects.” Each attribute poses regulatory challenges, he said. Comparing NGN regulatory proceedings around the world finds regulators focused on: (1) National security and critical infrastructure protection. (2) Legal system requirements. (3) Consumer requirements such as access to emergency numbers, spam and do-not-call. (4) Operational requirements. (5) Competition issues such as number portability, directory access and unbundled services.
To encourage growth of an NGN market, Rutkowski urged govts. to regulate for an open, competitive, secure NGN infrastructure for Europe. Citizen needs should be guarded via international telecom rules, the Council of Europe cybercrime convention, and European Commission network security activities, he said. And NGN core capabilities -- identification and authentication of NGN providers and subscribers, and rapid resolution of geographic identifiers -- should go into place now. Once, a glance at a phone number would identify what country it was in, Rutkowski said -- “but not in an NGN world.”
British Telecom (BT) is at the forefront of the NGN wave. As it moves from design to construction of its 21st Century Network (21CN), BT is finding “huge tensions” between itself, its wholesale customers and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) over how many “converged points of handover” there should be, said Ittai Hershman, dir.-21CN commercial development. BT’s plan envisions replacing its 5,500 legacy exchanges with 130 metro node sites, he said, but both its wholesale customers and Ofcom want more. “Not everyone is going to be a winner in this and there are some hard decisions to come,” Hershman said.