Table of Contents

Glossary

Foreword

List of abbreviations and acronyms

Chapter One: Why IP Telephony?

1.1 Why?

1.2 When?

1.3 What?

Chapter Two: Technical Aspects of IP Telephony

2.1 Introduction

2.2 IP Telephony standards activities

2.3 Quality of service

2.4 Bandwidth

2.5 Numbering

2.6 Impact of IP Telephony on network architectures

Chapter Three: Economic Aspects of IP Telephony

3.1 Consumers, carriers and countries

3.2 Size, substitutability and settlements

3.3 Impact on the Public Telecommunication Operator

Chapter Four: Regulatory Aspects of IP Telephony

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Changing conceptions of telecommunication networks and services

4.3 Current approaches to the regulatory status of IP Telephony

4.4< IP Telephony in high-price markets

4.5 Sustainability of local access networks>

4.6 IP Telephony development does not equal Internet development

4.7 IP Telephony in falling-price markets

4.8 IP Telephony in low-price markets

4.9 Impact of IP Telephony on universal service schemes

4.10 IP Telephony puts downward pressure on IDD charges

Chapter Five: IP Telephony in Practice

5.1< Introduction

5.2 The impact of the regulatory environment on IP Telephony

5.3 Impact of public telecommunication operators on the evolution of IP Telephony

5.4 The impact of IP Telephony on the regulatory environment

5.5 Conclusion: Who benefits from restrictive policies?

Chapter Six: Conclusions

6.1 The perils of cost-oriented pricing

6.2 Towards technology-neutral regulation

A1. China

A2. Colombia

A3. Peru

A4. Thailand

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Taking off

Figure 1.2a: Examples of different “flavours” of IP Telephony

Figure 1.2b: More examples of the different “flavours” of IP Telephony

Figure 1.3: Competition continues to grow, with Internet services leading the way

Figure 2.1: Two different ways of doing the same thing

Figure 2.2: The boom in trans-Atlantic capacity

Figure 2.3: Top ten international Internet hub cities, and inter-regional Internet bandwidth

Figure 2.4: Evolving Architectures

Figure 3.1: Map and traceroute showing path of message between Switzerland and Uganda

Figure 3.2: IP capacity overtaking voice capacity

Figure 3.3: Where did all that traffic disappear?

Figure 3.4: Dial-up Internet traffic contributing to carrier revenue streams

Figure 4.1: Testing the functional equivalence of IP Telephony and PSTN voice services

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: .... Retail Phone-to-Phone Voice Services

Table 1.2: .... Wholesale Phone-to-Phone Voice Services

Table 1.3: .... Enhanced IP Telephony Applications

Table 2.1: .... Everything-over-IP (XoIP)” Standards, Protocols, and Vendor Fora

Table 3.1: .... Top ten net settlement surplus countries

Table 4.1: .... Are any Internet services prohibited?

Table 4.2: .... Countries that specifically permit IP Telephony

Table 4.3: .... Some IP Telephony alliances involving PTOs from countries in which competition is restricted

Table 4.4: .... The fuzzy line between public voice telecommunication and everything else

Table 5.1: .... Market statistics and regulatory structures

Table 6.1: .... The impact of IP Telephony on public telecommunication operators

Table A1: .... Bandwidth: Limited but growing

Table A2: .... Falling prices

Table A3: .... Defining Telecommunication Services

Table A4: .... A market showing constant growth

Table A5: .... Other voice routes

Table A6: .... Diversification in termination charges

Table A7: .... Pricing Strategies of Major Mobile Phone Operators

Table A8: .... Rates of Domestic Long-Distance Telephone Call

Table A9: .... Comparison of Internet Pricing in Asian Countries

Table A10: .. Comparison of Phone Net and International Telephone Rates For Major Destinations profit

Table A11: .. Rates of Y-Tel Service

LIST OF BOXES

Box 1.1: Poland – New Telecommunication Law Will Permit Internet Telephony

Box 1.2: IP Telephony Heads for the Stars

Box 2.1: Switzerland – It all Comes Down to a Few Milliseconds

Box 2.2: The Life (and death?) of an IP Telephony Packet

Box 2.3: Changing Quality of Service Expectations?

Box 2.4: How do I find thee? let me UNUM the ways?

Box 3.1: “Free” IP Telephony?

Box 3.2: Nepal: Two Faces of IP Telephony – Origination and Termination

Box 3.3: Telecom Egypt: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

Box 3.4: IP Telephony can be mobile, too: the case of Hungary

Box 3.5: Czech Republic – Licensed Providers of all Kinds Offer Internet Telephony and VoIP

Box 4.1: European Union: A Common Framework for Electronic Communications Networks and Services

Box 4.2: Hungary - Keep The Sound (quality) Down, Okay?

Box 4.3: European Union - If It’s Not Real-Time, It’s Not Voice Telephony

Box 4.4: USA – IP Telephony Looks Like a Telecommunications Service, But Is Not Regulated Like One

Box 4.5: iBasis: The business Model of a Wholesale IPTSP

Box 4.6: ITXC: It’s Easy to Get Started with a SNARC

Box 4.7: Level 3: VoIP Is Functionally Equivalent to Circuit-Switched Voice and Should Be Regulated the Same Way

Box 4.8: Voice or Data?

Box 4.9: Real-time?

Box 4.10: European Commission Recommends Unbundled Access to the Local Loop

Box 4.11: European Union – 1998 Status Notice Under Review, But Few Changes Expected

Box 4.12: Canada - Voice is voice is voice

Box 4.13: Malaysia: Licensable “applications services” Include PSTN Telephony, IP Telephony

Box 6.1: “Wait and See” in the Republic of Korea

Box 6.2: France - Public Consultation Emphasizes Need for Technology-neutral Regulation

Box A1: Future Transportation with the Ministry of Railways

Box A2: Equipment Production and National Champions

Box A3: Enforcing the law

Box A4: APLIO – An Innovation in Equipment

LIST OF BOX FIGURES

Box Figure 3.1: IP Telephony wants to be free

Box Figure 3.2: Nepal Telecommunications Corporation: vulnerable to IP Telephony?

Box Figure 3.3: Traffic and tariff trends between Egypt and the United States