Pan-Caribbean mobile network operator, Digicel has protested against the decision of the Guyana Parliament not to pass legislation that would break a monopoly on international calls in Guyana. Despite months of consultations and commitments, the Government pulled the legislation at the 11th hour. According to the telecommunications provider, Parliament's decision to allow the current monopoly to continue crushes Guyana's hope for lower international calling rates within the near future. Digicel is requesting that details of the late submission, the reason for the withdrawal of the promised legislation from Parliament today be made available to all stakeholders.

See Press Release 
Source: Cellular-news

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)  launched, of its own initiative, a proceeding to review its decisions on billing practices that would have applied to the residential customers of Small Internet service providers (Small ISPs).  “The great concern expressed by Canadians over this issue is telling of how much the Internet has become an integral part of their lives,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC.

 “Our approach is based on two fundamental principles: cas a general rule, ordinary consumers served by Small ISPs should not have to fund the bandwidth used by the heaviest residential Internet consumers, and it is in the best interest of consumers that Small ISPs, which offer competitive alternatives to the Large Distributors, should continue to do so.

See Press Release

Source: CRTC

Indian security agencies are not satisfied with a solution offered by Research In Motion (RIM.TO) for accessing data on its BlackBerry Messenger services, junior telecoms minister Sachin Pilot told parliament on Wednesday. RIM gave India access to its consumer services including the Messenger services in January, after Indian authorities raised security concerns, but said it could not allow monitoring of its enterprise email.

See Press Release
Source: Reuters

ARCEP published its ten proposals on Internet and network neutrality - a document that is the fruit of work begun by the Authority back in September 2009. In the autumn of 2009, the Net neutrality debate was still very quiet in Europe, although it had been the subject of much talk in the United States for several years. Market specialists are predicting that, 10 years from now, around 20% of global GDP will be devoted to the digital ecosystem, compared the current 6% to 7%. The Internet will therefore become a strategic shared asset. If it does not work, the economy comes to a halt. So federal governments cannot sit idly by. There need to be rules in place.

See more and documents
Source : Arcep

Arcep has just published on its website a press conference on 3G, 4G frequencies, consumers and net neutrality. You can listen to the speech and the question period.

See Press release
Source: ARCEP

CRTC encourages competition and investment in the provision of Internet services The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today determined, on the basis of the evidence submitted at a recent public hearing, that large telephone companies must make their existing Internet access services available to alternate Internet service providers (ISPs) at speeds that match those offered to their own retail customers. This requirement will ensure that alternate ISPs can continue to give Canadians more choice by offering competing and innovative Internet services.

See decision (Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-632)
Source: CRTC

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today directed the large telephone companies to rebate $310.8 million to their urban home telephone customers. At the same time, the CRTC has approved a plan for the deployment of broadband Internet service to 287 rural and remote communities.

See Press Release
Source: CRTC

A consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality has been launched by the European Commission. It covers such issues as whether internet providers should be allowed to adopt certain traffic management practices, prioritising one kind of internet traffic over another, whether such traffic management practices may create problems and have unfair effects for users, whether the level of competition between different internet service providers and the transparency requirements of the new telecom framework may be sufficient to avoid potential problems by allowing consumers' choice and whether the EU needs to act further to ensure fairness in the internet market, or whether industry should take the lead. European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, announced in April 2010 her intention to launch this consultation in order to take forward Europe's net neutrality debate. The consultation will feed into a Commission report on net neutrality, which should be presented by the end of this year. All interested parties – service and content providers, consumers, businesses and researchers – are invited to respond to the consultation by 30 September 2010. An open and neutral internet underpins many of the targets set out in the Digital Agenda for Europe.

See Press Release
Source: Europa

In an online video address, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski explains the suggested “third way” approach developed by FCC staff to secure a solid legal foundation for broadband policy in the wake of the recent Comcast court decision.

The FCC also launched a series of new media resources at Broadband.gov -- including blog posts, frequently asked questions, and a glossary of terms -- to educate the public about the complex, technical legal issues involved. These resources will be updated on an ongoing basis. FCC Chairman Genachowski video address available here. FCC Chairman Genachowski blog post available here.

See press release attached

Source: FCC

DOC-297976A1.doc (69,5 KB)

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  previously embraced four open Internet principles affirming that consumers must be able to access the lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, and attach non-harmful devices to the network. Chairman Genachowski proposed the addition of two new principles. The first would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

The FCC has created a new section on Open Internet.

Source: FCC

Despite facing the horrific Mumbai attacks, India is still not geared up to track calls made using VoIP. Therefore, until India comes out with a mechanism to trace such calls, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has requested that the service remains blocked in India.

See More
Source The Times of India

Commencing on 6 July 2009, the Commission will hold a hearing in Gatineau, Quebec, to do a review of the Internet traffic
management practices of Internet service providers. For more information or to listen to the hearing through live audio feed,
please visit the website here.

See eeference documents:     Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2008-19
See also Telecom Public Notices CRTC 2008-19-1; 2008-19-2  and 2008-19-3.

Source: CRTC

Ofcom has  published a short guide to telecoms regulation for companies looking to invest in new build super-fast broadband networks. The guide provides a summary of existing telecoms policy for ease of reference and is published alongside a glossary of terms on super-fast broadband.
 
See the document 

Source: OFCOM

VoIP is a technology for the delivery of voice services using existing internet infrastructure and services. There are no laws or rules that prohibit the use of such technology within the State of Qatar.

The Telecommunications Law 34 of 2006 does, however, make it illegal for any person to provide telecommunications services to the public for a direct or indirect fee without a license issued by ictQATAR for that purpose.

Currently the only two entities licensed by ictQATAR to provide such voice services to the public in Qatar are Qatar Telecom (QTel) Q.S.C. and Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C.

See Press Release
Source: ICT Qatar

CRTC has published a Telecom Decision "Review of local number portability for voice over Internet Protocol services". In this Decision, the Commission determines that voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers will continue to be required to port out telephone numbers, assigned from both inside and outside of their operating territory, to other VoIP service providers or to other telecommunications service providers, including local exchange carriers and wireless service providers. Further, the Commission determines that all telephone numbers, whether assigned from inside or outside the company's operating territory, may be ported in at a VoIP service provider's discretion. The Commission also determines that the local number portability (LNP) rules for VoIP, which include LNP as a condition of forbearance for access-independent VoIP services, will continue to apply equally to all VoIP telephone numbers, whether they are primary or secondary numbers.

See : Press Release
Source: CRTC

Europe’s telecommunications regulators at the ERG/IRG Plenary Meeting in Rome on the 6th and 7th of December have approved a number of measures to improve the functioning of telecoms markets. A key outcome of the ERG meeting was the approval of a Common Position for a
harmonised application of regulation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Other key points agreed at the meeting were:  improved mechanisms for exposing the level of compliance of NRAs with ERG common positions;  a public consultation document on a draft Common Position on symmetric regulation of termination rates amongst fixed network operators and amongst mobile network operators; a public consultation on draft best practice guidelines for the regulation of wholesale broadband access markets. ERG also approved a work programme for 2008 which includes further work on termination rates and consideration of regulatory approaches to sub-national geographic differentiation. The work programme for the coming year will include a check of mobile data roaming charges in Europe.

erg_plenary_dec_17_debrief_press_release.pdf (24,05 KB)

See Press Release
Source : ERG

Europe’s telecommunications regulators at the ERG/IRG Plenary Meeting in Rome on the 6th and 7th of December have approved a number of measures to improve the functioning of telecoms markets. A key outcome of the ERG meeting was the approval of a Common Position for a harmonised application of regulation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Other key points agreed at the meeting were:

• improved mechanisms for exposing the level of compliance of NRAs with ERG common positions;
• a public consultation document on a draft Common Position on symmetric regulation of termination rates amongst fixed network operators and amongst mobile network operators;
• a public consultation on draft best practice guidelines for the regulation of wholesale broadband access markets.
  
  ERG also approved a work programme for 2008 which includes further work on termination rates and consideration of regulatory approaches to sub-national geographic differentiation. The work programme for the coming year will include a check of mobile data roaming charges in Europe.
  
  See Press Release
  
  Source: European Regulatos Group (ERG)

Amendments to the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2002 came into effect today that confirm the obligation to provide free-of-charge access calls to Triple Zero from voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services with both dial-in and dial-out functionality.

‘These amendments provide greater certainty for consumers about access to police, fire and ambulance assistance, as new and innovative services are introduced,’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman. ‘Many VoIP providers already provide free-of-charge access for emergency calls, and the amended Determination makes it very clear that from today all VoIP providers of two-way services are obligated to provide access to Triple Zero and the special emergency number (106) for the Deaf and hearing impaired community.’ Full press release

Source: ACMA, Australia

Washington, D.C. – The right of consumers to keep the same, familiar phone number when switching to a new telephone company was expanded today by the Federal Communications Commission, in an Order that will further ensure consumers’ opportunity to choose a telephone service provider based on quality, price and service.

The FCC made clear that the obligation to provide local number portability extends to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol providers and the telecommunications carriers that obtain numbers for them.  This action was, in part, a response to numerous complaints by consumers about their inability to port numbers to or from interconnected VoIP providers.  The FCC also initiated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on additional VoIP numbering issues. Full press release

 

Source: FCC, United States

Following the referrals by T-Online and Liberty Surf companies, respectively in November 2001 and February 2002, who subsequently withdrew their complaint, and following a referral ex-officio by the Conseil de la concurrence, the latter has just published its decision. The decision penalizes France Telecom for abusing its dominant position on the local loop market in favouring marketing of internet access services by its Wanadoo subsidiary to the detriment of the competing Internet access providers.

See the Press Release and the decision

Source: Conseil de la Concurrence

On 4 September 2007 ITU has released a major publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. This is the 8^th of a series of reports focusing on the ongoing transformation in the telecom/ICT sector to inform regulators and policy makers around the world.

During the past week, the report got news coverage by numerous leading national and international media, witnessing the interest of the ten chapters of research and analysis dedicated to issues related to the transition towards Next Generation Networks (NGN). You can find links to some of the news reports in the attached document.

More information about the 2007 report is available at the “On the Road to NGN” website.

The publication is available for sale at the ITU bookshop.

Geneva, 4 September 2007 — ITU has released a major publication, Trends in Telecommunication Reform: the Road to NGN. In its 8th edition, Trends reports on the evolution of circuit-switched telecommunication into "next-generation" networks, as operators around the world fight to remain competitive. The Report aims at enabling regulators and policy-makers in developing countries to better understand the changes transforming the ICT sector so they can evolve their policy and regulatory frameworks to leverage today’s technological and market developments.

What does NGN mean for regulators? They have many choices to make. Some view NGN as the intersection of the telecom and Internet worlds. If so, which regulatory regime should apply? The current heavily-regulated telecom regulatory model? The lightly-regulated Internet model? Or some new hybrid model? The migration to NGN affords an opportunity for regulators to analyze current practices and revise them in light of what makes sense going forward. This Trends report offers a detailed discussion of the kinds of measures that are needed to ensure that regulation keeps pace with technological and market developments so that the best of NGN is available to all of the world’s people.

The ITU press release is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

More information about the content of the 2007 report is available at the “On the Road to NGN” website.

The publication is available for sale at the ITU bookshop.

Truphone today announced Truphone Out+, a new feature that enables free and VoIP-rate calls to be made from a customer's existing phone number. Truphone Out+ also brings carrier pre-select to Truphone customers, ensuring free Truphone-to-Truphone calls are set up whenever possible. Truphone is a mobile operator for the internet age, delivering a UK-based service accessible from around the world. Truphone Out+ is an evolution of the Truphone service that will be evolved to a full Truphone service when the following conditions are met:

- number portability becomes possible in a country;

- E.164 compliance is implemented in that country;

- Truphone introduces a local number range in that country.

Truphone is actively working with national regulators and operator partners around the world to bring about one or more of these conditions.

Source: Truphone Press Office

Ofcom today published proposals to require certain types of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers to allow users to call 999 by early 2008. This follows research revealing that as many as 78% of VoIP users who cannot use their service to call 999 thought they could, or did not know whether they could.

Ofcom proposes that any VoIP service allowing users to make calls to ordinary phone numbers must also offer access to 999.

Ofcom wants to ensure that users of mainstream VoIP services do not suffer as a result of trying to dial 999 using a service that does not offer them access. If they had to then locate an ordinary landline or mobile phone, users might face a delay of seconds or minutes in getting through to emergency services, which could prove critical. Full Press Release

Source: OFCOM, United Kingdom

Note: For visitors of your site, this entry is only displayed for users with the preselected language English (United States)/English (United States) (en-US)

The critical importance of free-of-charge access to emergency services using new telecommunications technologies was emphasised today with the release of proposed amendments to the regulatory obligations for telecommunications providers.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is proposing changes to the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2002 to confirm the obligation to provide free-of-charge access to emergency call services for ‘two-way’ and ‘dial-out only’ voice over internet protocol (‘VoIP’) services. The proposals are designed to provide greater certainty for consumers about access to emergency call services as new and innovative services are introduced.

ACMA’s proposals deliver on recommendations for emergency call access contained in the Examination of Policy and Regulation relating to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Services report by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, released in November 2005.

‘ACMA’s proposals implement the relevant recommendations of the VoIP report’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman. ‘The current emergency call service arrangements have served the Australian public well and it is intended to maintain this safeguard.’

‘Many VoIP providers already provide free-of-charge access to triple zero and these proposals clarify that the obligation applies to all VoIP services capable of dialling into the public telephone network.’

ACMA is also proposing that VoIP services must be flagged in the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) so that the emergency call service operator will know to ask the caller for location information. The IPND is a national database of all listed and unlisted public telephone numbers, customer name and address information and the name of the customer’s carriage service provider.

The details of the proposed changes are contained in a consultation paper and draft amendment, released for public comment today and available on the ACMA website.

Source: ACMA, Australia

Japan’s telecoms regulator, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), plans to extend rules governing the provision of internet protocol (IP) telephony services in the wake of a major 3.5-hour blackout which left thousands of fibre-optic customers without a service last month. Under current rules, VoIP service providers are only required to notify the MIC of any problems when 30,000 or more customers are unable to access their IP line for two hours or more. However, following last month’s outage in which NTT East and NTT West fibre-optic equipment froze 3.18 million customers’ circuits, the MIC now wants to extend rules to compel operators to report even minor glitches. The watchdog plans to amend the relevant ordinances this year to redress the loophole of current legislation not addressing areas such as difficulty in connecting to other phones via the internet, or delays in receiving e-mails via the web.

Source : TeleGeography

Note: For visitors of your site, this entry is only displayed for users with the preselected language English (United States)/English (United States) (en-US)

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") issued the following statement today (1 June 2007) in response to the judgement handed down by the court in connection with the judicial review applied by PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited ("PCCW") on the Telecommunications Authority's ("TA") direction dated 7 November 2006 (the "Direction"). The purpose of the Direction was to direct PCCW and Wharf T&T Limited ("WT&T") to effect interconnection so as to pass the Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") traffic of a Service-Based Operator ("SBO") licensee connected to WT&T's network.

"We welcome the judgement handed down by the court today, which affirms the Telecommunications Authority's power to issue direction under section 36B of the Telecommunications Ordinance ("TO") to secure interconnection. With the legal effect of the direction clearly affirmed by the court, the obligations of licensees to observe and comply with the relevant licence conditions on interconnection and "any-to-any" connectivity are further entrenched. OFTA firmly believes that timely interconnection is crucial to new entrants to the market and the "any-to-any" connectivity requirement ensures customers on one network will be able to call the customers of another network without impediment."

Source: OFTA, Hong Kong

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has introduced a new, location-independent service type and number range to facilitate the introduction of innovative communications services while assisting consumers in making more informed choices.

ACMA has amended the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 1997 (the Numbering Plan) to create the new service type and the 0550 number range.

‘The new service type and the 0550 number range provide greater flexibility for industry to innovate in the provision of telephone services but in a way that should also provide consumers with clearer signals about the extent to which their service will resemble a traditional telephone service. This is important because emerging voice services may function in different ways to traditional telephone services,’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman.

Current examples of innovative services include some kinds of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services. However, as next generation networks are built and software and devices continue to evolve, it can be expected that innovation will broaden further.

Under the new arrangements, service providers will have a choice of number ranges. If a provider wishes to offer a traditional fixed telephone service or a service that is a close substitute, it will continue to be able to access geographic numbers, or, if it chooses, it can diversify to the new 0550 number range.

If a service offers features that depart significantly from those traditionally expected of telephone services, then ACMA expects these will be offered only on the 0550 number range. In particular, 0550 will be suitable in cases where a telephone service is not fixed to a particular location. ACMA has included a set of guidelines in the Numbering Plan that are intended to assist carriage service providers in selecting the appropriate number range for the provision of IP-based services.

The authority’s decision is an important step in facilitating the evolution of voice telephony and also implements an important aspect of the government’s announced strategic framework for VoIP services.

As part of this new approach ACMA intends to more actively monitor compliance with regard to the use of geographic numbers for local services by carriage service providers. In the first instance, ACMA intends to provide information and advice to IP service providers to assist them in meeting their obligations as carriage service providers. In addition, ACMA will also make available information to consumers about the new number range.

‘As new services become available, ACMA expects to continue working with organisations such as the Communications Alliance to ensure that appropriate information is available,’ said Mr Chapman.

ACMA will also continue to work with the Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the industry on other matters related to the changing technological and commercial environment for voice services.

The changes will take effect from 31 May 2007. This provides industry with time to make the required networking and marketing preparations to support the number range.

Source: ACMA, Australia

The Thai government blocked access to YouTube on Wednesday after complaining that a short clip on the popular video-sharing site is insulting to the country's beloved monarch.

Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, the country's minister of information and technology, said YouTube had turned down his request to remove the contentious 44-second video, which shows graffitti-like elements painted over a slideshow of photographs of 79-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej.[...]

Source: Washingtonpost.com.

Ofcom today announced a new regulatory code for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers that will ensure that consumers have access to important information about the capabilities of their service. All VoIP providers will be required to comply with the code from June 2007.

VoIP services offer consumers the prospect of cheaper calls - especially for calls from one VoIP service to another - and valuable new services such as call handling and unified messaging.

Over the last twelve months a range of new VoIP services have been launched and demand continues to grow. Industry forecasts predict that there could be as many as three million users in the UK by the end of this year.

Following public consultation in 2006, Ofcom has decided to put in place measures to ensure that consumers have access to information which helps them make informed purchasing decisions. The new code of practice requires VoIP providers to make clear:

• whether or not the service includes access to emergency services;
• the extent to which the service depends on the user's home power supply;
• whether directory assistance, directory listings, access to the operator or the itemisation of calls are available; and
• whether consumers will be able to keep their telephone number if they choose to switch providers at a later date. (…)

 

Source: Ofcom, UK.

In this Report and Order (“Order”), we adopt rules and provide guidance to implement Section 621(a)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the “Communications Act”), which prohibits franchising authorities from unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises for the provision of cable services. We find that the current operation of the local franchising process in many jurisdictions constitutes an unreasonable barrier to entry that impedes the achievement of the interrelated federal goals of enhanced cable competition and accelerated broadband deployment. We further find that Commission action to address this problem is both authorized and necessary. Accordingly, we adopt measures to address a variety of means by which local franchising authorities, i.e., county- or municipallevel franchising authorities (“LFAs”), are unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises. We anticipate that the rules and guidance we adopt today will facilitate and expedite entry of new cable competitors into the market for the delivery of video programming, and accelerate broadband deployment consistent with our statutory responsibilities.[...]

Source: FCC, R&O & NPRM.

 

The FCC Wireline Competition Bureau has granted a petition for a declaratory ruling filed by Time Warner Cable in March 2006, which requested that all wholesale telecommunications carriers be entitled to interconnect and exchange traffic with incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), including traffic originating from VoIP-service-based providers. The Commission must promote competition in every sector it oversees and create a level playing field among service providers. We recently acted to increase competition and give consumers more choice among providers of television programming. Similarly, today, we help ensure that there is meaningful competition in local telephone service. Our decision will enhance consumers' choice for phone service by making clear that cable and other VoIP providers must be able to use local phone numbers and be allowed to put calls through to other phone networks. By increasing competition in the telephone sector, this action encourages the deployment of broadband facilities and ensures that consumers in all areas of the country reap the benefits of competition in the form of lower prices, innovative services and more choice. Source: FCC (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270985A1.pdf)

Bringing together regulatory authorities from all around the world, the 7th Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) has identified best practice guidelines needed to facilitate the migration of Next Generation Networks (NGN). The 38-point roadmap is designed to encourage regulatory frameworks that foster innovation, investment and affordable access to NGN. "Our goal is to encourage the design of regulatory frameworks that foster innovation, investment and affordable access to NGNs and that facilitate the migration to NGN and ultimately lead to bridging the digital divide," said Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General. "We believe the best practices adopted at this meeting will ultimately offer the possibility of delivering real benefits to providers and consumers, through cost reduction as well as offering innovative new services". The best practice guidelines underscore the importance of embracing the principles of a clear and transparent regulatory process including the adoption and enforcement of rules; technology-neutral and competitive network provision under a coherent approach that address the issues raised by convergence. The guidelines also call on regulators to adopt forward-looking regimes subjected to regular reassessments to ensure that undue regulatory barriers to competition and innovation are removed. This on-going monitoring would also ensure that users and providers are able to migrate to future networks whenever market conditions are met. Mohamed Al Ghanim, Director General of the TRA of the UAE and Chairman of GSR 2007 said, "GSR is the industry’s premiere symposium for ICT regulators and we are delighted that it has concluded on such a high note. We at the TRA of the United Arab Emirates are firmly committed to adopting the best practices identified at this symposium and tailor them for the UAE market", Al Ghanim added. "We encourage all to reap the benefits of these guidelines in order to collectively raise the standards of the telecommunications industry." Regulators are also urged to adopt investment friendly regulation considered as of paramount importance for the success of NGN network deployment, while maintaining a level playing field and protecting consumer interests. The adoption of flexible but accurate interconnection models are also encouraged to allow smooth transitioning to NGNs. In particular, participants agreed that regulators should take steps to ensure that the market suffers no undue distortion of competitiveness. In view of the high level of convergence both at the transport and service level, participants felt that there was a risk that NGN providers and operators could be in a position to restrict service level competition to their own advantage. There was therefore agreement that regulators should be vigilant and monitor any incident that could require a regulatory response in a way that would not act as a deterrent for NGN service providers and operators. Regulators are also asked to keep in mind the need to create regulatory certainty for both incumbent and competing or alternative providers. "NGN is seen as somewhere between the telecom and Internet worlds, creating a whole new range of issues to be tackled by regulators," said Mr Sami Al-Basheer Al-Morshid, Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)". "The best practice guidelines endorsed by over 100 CEOs and board members of national regulatory authorities come a long way in addressing the issues and provide the way forward for all regulators around the world," he added. Because the deployment of NGN will not happen overnight, the best practices encourage regulators to define policies that allow for the co-existence of legacy and IP networks, alternative voice services such as VoIP or bundled services that can offer voice together with TV and Internet also called triple play. In doing so, regulators are to consider applying the same obligations to all operators and providers of telephony services whether traditional irrespective of how they are delivered to consumers, under the symmetrical regulatory approach. Commenting on the success of the Symposium, Professor Ibrahim Kadi, Senior Advisor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) of Saudi Arabia said, "GSR 2007 met its set objectives of providing networking opportunities and the symposium format facilitated the sharing of knowledge and experiences amongst regulators from all over the world." The best practice guidelines cover all aspects of service provision including authorization, access, interconnection and interoperability, numbering and NGN identification systems, universal access, quality of service, consumer awareness, security and protection. This year’s event introduced a new feature, Speed Exchanges, to provide additional opportunities for participants to meet informally and exchange views. Topics discussed in the Speed Exchanges included interconnection, the enabling environment, consumer protection, quality of service, regulatory implications of VoIP, why holding public consultation on NGN, international roaming, regulatory issues for convergence and what to do with regulatory bottlenecks. Speed Exchanges were also held on building confidence and security in the use of ICT as called for by the Action Plan of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and on the next steps in the negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). "The Speed Exchanges proved extremely useful and came at the right time," expressed Roxanne Maria McElvane, Senior Counselor of International Development at the US Federal Communications Commission International Bureau. "After two days of high-level presentations and discussions, the exchanges allowed us to address specific topics and areas of interest with other regulators from around the world providing greater interaction and networking opportunities." The Symposium was organized by ITU and hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates (TRA). More than 470 participants took part in the Symposium, with Heads and Board Members from 100 national regulatory authorities as well as private sector representatives and international organizations. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/index.html

The three-day meeting (5-7 February) will bring together Heads of national regulatory authorities from both developed and developing countries to achieve consensus on the best ways to address the challenges brought about by the migration to NGN networks. 60 heads of regulatory authorities, together with 50 of their commissioners and board members are slated to attend. By 2008, at least 50% of all international telecommunication traffic is expected to be carried on IP networks. IP provides a common language in which different networks (for instance fixed and mobile; local and wide-area) can communicate together. Thus, IP is the touchstone for convergence and a common platform for NGN, while network capacity increases every month. In order to remain strategically competitive in an increasingly converged world of services and content where voice is no longer the sole source of revenue, operators and carriers are migrating from circuit-switched to Internet-Protocol (IP) networks and from there to Next-Generation Networks or NGN, which allow for decoupling the network’s transport and service layers. NGN networks promise to offer full and true convergence of fixed and mobile, voice and data, data and video and IT, telecoms and broadcast sectors. This means that the choice of technology used for infrastructure will no longer have an impact on the kinds and variety of services delivered over that infrastructure. The deployment of NGN networks will also offer ubiquitous access for users of these networks as well as for competing service providers. This shift, while taking place gradually, is already happening in several parts of the world. NGN presents many opportunities but also many complexities and challenges and requires new regulatory thinking to promote investment and ensure that carriers can remain competitive in this new environment while ensuring open access. For more information see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/GSR/GSR07/

Hundreds of owners and employees of Armenian firms providing external phone connection over the Internet rallied in Yerevan on Monday in protest against a government decision that upheld the national telecommunication operator’s monopoly on the popular service.

The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) ruled on January 8 that the ArmenTel operator can restrict or even block altogether competitors’ access to the so-called IP telephony. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians use the service to make phone calls abroad at prices that are much lower the fees charged by ArmenTel for regular phone connection.

Source: Armelialiberty, Shakeh Avoyan.

Following its recent statements asking Deutsche Telekom to offer ATM bitstream access, Germany's Federal Network Agency (FNA) has submitted a draft bill for regulating ATM bitstream access to the European Commission and national regulatory authorities of other member states. Under the draft bill, the FNA is seeking to mandate Deutsche Telekom to offer wholesale ATM bitstream in complement to its existing wholesale IP bitstream offer. The FNA expects feedback from the EC and national regulators by end February 2007.

Source: CommunicationsDirect, Copyright 2007 GLOBAL INSIGHT, Inc.

Chile's transport and telecommunications ministry, the MTT, plans to hold a public consultation process on VoIP regulation and aims to have a final document on the matter during the first months of the year, writes BNamericas citing local newspaper Diario Financiero. The move will please industry players such as IP telephony provider Voissnet which has long claimed that the VoIP market has been hindered by technical barriers imposed by incumbent operator Telefónica Chile. In late October 2006 Chile's antitrust tribunal (TDLC) fined Telefónica Chile nearly USD1 million for blocking VoIP calls.

Source: Telegeography, Chile

The Federal Network Agency is launching a fundamental debate on the future of the telecommunications market by inviting comments from all interested parties on the document "Framework conditions for IP-based network interconnection". This is the title under which the final report from a Project Group that comprised distinguished telecommunications experts with many years experience of the market has today been published. The Group was set up by the Agency and headed by Agency President, Matthias Kurth. It had an advisory function, and was not to take any legally binding decisions. Mr Kurth thanked the members for their commitment and the fruits of one year's intensive work. "It is very pleasing that the debates among the experts, bringing experience from every segment of the telecommunications market, were held in a constructive climate. This provided the opportunity to take necessary decisions in good time, so as to respond early on to the challenges of migration to IP-based networks and to continue to guarantee fair conditions for all the market players", Matthias Kurth said today in Bonn. "We expect that the transition to IP-based networks will be accompanied by considerable changes in network structure. But these technical changes will also have economic implications, eg as regards the extent to which and the form in which competition can take place in future. Here, interconnection issues will be key", Kurth declared, presenting the report.

The final report shows directions in which a future-proof interconnection regime could develop. It also focuses on the transition from today's to tomorrow's regime.The report details a raft of factors regarded as core elements of an interconnection regime for an "all-IP network". These include, for instance, number and location of the points of interconnection, possible quality differentiation, price levels and price structure aspects of interconnection services, and billing systems. The report also addresses issues currently of interest resulting from the application of different interconnection regimes to traditional telephone networks on the one hand and to the Internet on the other. "The report provides us with an excellent basis for pro-competitive solutions to the challenges ahead", Kurth emphasised. The Federal Network Agency is keen to engage closely with the market, and thus invites all interested parties to submit comments on the final report by the closing date of 26 February 2007. The report is available for download on the Agency's website at www.bundesnetzagentur.de.[...]

Source: Federal Network Agency, Germany.

The two day Executive Level Training organized by the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and infoDev, in cooperation with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), Hong Kong, China, ended on 3 December 2006. More than 50 Senior Executives from 27 countries gathered in Hong Kong, China to participate in this event.

The training focused on New Technologies, New thinking, ICT Regulation in a Changing World and highlighted how the joint ITU-infoDev ICT regulation toolkit could help regulators and policy makers. The ICT Regulation Toolkit and the training programme were designed to enable regulators and policy makers to identify solutions to their real world challenges. Nearly ninety percent of the participants expressed a high level of satisfaction and the wish to continue such training. The joint ITU infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit was very well received and generated a lot of positive feedback. To learn more about this event, click here. To access the ICT regulation toolkit, click here.

Chief Executives from around the globe will gather from 2-3 December in Hong Kong (just prior to the ITU World Telecom events) for an executive level training programme organized by ITU and infoDev in cooperation with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), Hong Kong, China. The training is reserved exclusively for the heads of national regulatory authorities and senior executives of national policy-makers. The programme will focus on New Technologies, New Thinking: ICT Regulation in a Changing World. Rapid technological changes are taking place in the ICT sector, led by the vast deployment of IP networks, the convergence of fixed and mobile networks and services, and the advent of next generation networks. These developments call for new thinking and informed and sound policy/regulatory decisions. More information can be found on http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/ceotraining/index.html 

The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry, announced that the government has varied a decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The government is calling on the CRTC to refrain from economic regulation of certain Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

"Canada's telecommunications landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and it's time for our regulatory approach to evolve as well," said Minister Bernier. "A more competitive environment will translate into greater choice, newer products and better services for the Canadian consumer." [...]

Source: Industry Canada.

Alternative wireless broadband service provider Irish Broadband has launched a commercial voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) product over its high speed network, writes Electricnews.net. The operator is offering a residential service with prices starting from EUR9.99 per month for 500 minutes of inclusive calls to landlines in the UK and Ireland, or EUR14.99 monthly to include calls to a further 28 international destinations. A business package is also available offering 2,000 minutes of calls to landlines in Ireland, the UK and ten other destinations for EUR34.99 per month (excl. VAT). All other calls will be charged on a pro rata basis, although calls to other Irish Broadband customers are free. In addition, the operator’s service requires no line rental charge, although users will need a touchtone phone and an ATA terminal adapter, which Irish Broadband sells for EUR99.

Source: Telegeography

Vietnamese ISP Financial Promoting Technology (FPT) Telecom has revealed that it submitted an application for fixed line telephony licence to the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT) in August 2006. FPT is one of four companies presently licensed to pilot fixed WiMAX across the country before the MPT’s intended commercialisation of the technology in 2007, when it is thought full mobile operating licences will be awarded. If licensed, FPT would provide its fixed line service over the cable infrastructure of its broadband service.
Meanwhile another of the companies testing WiMAX, state owned incumbent telco VNPT, has reported decreased income in its fixed and VoIP revenues since the start of the year. Its charges for VoIP, fixed by the MPT, and are the highest in the country, while competitors are free to set their own. The telco’s monthly ARPU for fixed line and IP telephony services is reported to be VND100,000 (USD6.25).

Source. Telegeography

Argentine corporate communications provider Iplan has launched ‘Próximo Softphone’, an IP telephony service, reports BNamericas. Subscribers are given a virtual number that will receive calls from any internet connection or ordinary telephone. Calls to other Próximo users are free, with other calls charged at local rates only. Iplan claims to have been the first provider of broadband services in Latin America, having offered internet, voice, data, and video services over a 100% IP network since 2000.

Source: Telegeography

T-Mobile USA has begun trials of a new service which offers a combined cellular and Wi-Fi connection. The ‘T-Mobile Hotspot @ Home’ offering allows users to make unlimited calls from home or when within range of a T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot; at all other locations calls are carried as normal via the operator’s GSM cellular network. Customers who wish to use the service must purchase a dual-mode handset, a wireless router for the home and a T-Mobile Wi-Fi subscription. The cellco says the service is being trialled in Washington state and will offer subscribers better wireless coverage at home.

Source: Telegeography

According to INQ7.net, the country’s incumbent fixed line operator Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has ‘temporarily barred’ incoming calls from its rival Innove Communications' voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) service, while the pair work out an interconnection agreement. PLDT has reportedly filed a complaint with the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), alleging that Innove, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom, has been routing international calls to PLDT’s network without an interconnect agreement. Globe has countered that there is no case to answer as the matter was resolved several months ago, and says its GlobeQuest Webphone service is only available for domestic use. However, PLDT says that some Globe subscribers have used the service abroad. A spokesman for Globe says the company aims to resolve the problem by the end of 2006.

Source: Telegeography

The Ugandan regulator UCC has granted a telecoms services licence to local operator TalkTelecom to be able to provide services to both residential and corporate customers. This is the first legal opening for a VoIP service provider in the country that does not operate its own network. See:http://www.balancingact-africa.com

Consultation at the request of the BIPT Council of 11 October 2006 regarding the operators who provide nomadic voice services by means of IP technology: location issue of emergency calls.

Source: Institut belge des services postaux et de télécommunications.

The Singaporean government said it planned to cover most of the country with public wireless internet access by next year and provide nearly 10,000 subsidised computers to low-income students to offer digital opportunities to all its citizens, according to Dow Jones reports citing Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Lee said the government would increase the number of public wireless hot spots from 900 to 5,000 by next year as part of the plan. Lee said about 10,000 households with school-going children would qualify for subsidised computers, and efforts would be made to help the elderly and disabled use the internet.

Source: Global Insight.

According to Berit Kjoell, Division Director at Telenor, the Norwegian telco has the country’s largest VoIP subscriber base with 90,000 users currently, approximately 45% of the broadband telephony market. ‘When Telenor launched broadband telephony on 30 March last year, we said that we would be the market leader by the end of 2006, and now we are,’ said Kjoell.

Source: Telegeography

In yet another raid on illegal VoIP operators, five foreign nationals were arrested and the operating equipment seized at Walvis Bay over the weekend. Officials from Telecom Namibia’s Fraud Monitoring Unit, assisted by members of the Namibian Police, raided three Chinese-owned shops at the coastal town on Saturday morning where the owners have been operating illegal VoIP services for a considerable period of time. [...]

The suspects were caught red-handedly while attempting to sell the service to a member of the public. It is evident that for these illegal operators, the provision of VoIP to the public is an opportunity for ill-gotten income rather than an opportunity for better service. The suspects will be charged with violating the Postal and Telecommunication Act of 1992. The Act prohibits the provision of any telecommunications service by any person without a licence. Saturday’s raid led to the discovery of electronic equipment used for VoIP connections, bypassing the switching facilities of Telecom Namibia, the incumbent fixed-line operator. Among the equipment confiscated were IPstars, a device that let you make Internet phone calls without using a computer. By using such devises together with VoIP gateways, Multiplexes, modems and so on to bypass Telecom switches, the illegal operators are undermining the country’s laws as well as the viability of Telecom’s network by not paying Telecom Namibia right compensation. Illegal Net telephone operators are a pivotal challenge confronting not only Telecom Namibia but also the Namibian Government as a whole. These set ups not only put the company’s rate/price structure at risk, but drastically reduces the tax benefits that could be reaped by the Government and the citizens alike. Apart from monetary losses, the illegal networks also raise serious security concerns as these international numbers dialled cannot be easily traced. [...]

Source: Telecom Namibia Limited.

The FCC should ensure broadband users' right to access all online content but not impose net neutrality rules that could hinder Web investment, FCC Chmn. Martin told a UBS teleconference. Customers don't have a right to use more broadband capacity than they've bought from an Internet provider, he added: "We've said that the network operator needs to manage his network." The FCC believes in a "balance" in which network providers "can't block access to web sites but can manage their networks" by charging different prices, Martin said. On the same call, Martin said the AWS wireless broadband auction was "going to be probably our biggest, most successful auction." "This is the largest amount of spectrum that we've ever made available, that is capable of providing wireless broadband services," he said: "We're going to raise almost $14 billion." -- JM, EH, HB

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 179.

Argentine corporate communications company Impsat is launching VoIP services in the country, and plans to target companies in remote or rural areas, according to BNamericas. Impsat operates 15 networks in Latin America, mainly in large cities.

 

Source: Telegeography

Armenian fixed line incumbent ArmenTel has suspended services to a number of companies it claims have been offering VoIP without a requisite licence, writes Telecompaper. ArmenTel is the only company licensed to provide VoIP in the country. In 1998 the Armenian government granted it a 15-year monopoly on the provision of all telephony services, under Licence N60. However, five years later the state said it would revoke ArmenTel's exclusivity on the provision of wireless and internet access services, having accused the telco of abusing its dominant status with poor network quality and high service costs. At the time, ArmenTel's Greek parent OTE responded to the threat by launching a USD300 million compensatory claim against the government through the international courts, and twelve months of litigation followed. The court actions only stopped in November 2004.

Source: Telegeography

Filipino internet service provider (ISP) Mozcom has launched a VoIP service with integrated webcasting technology under the brand name VCall. Mozcom, the country’s first commercial ISP, was awarded a licence to operate VoIP services by the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in August 2005.

Source: Telegeography

Zhone Technologies has announced a deal with Telecom Egypt to deploy its MALC Broadband Loop Carrier Technology to enable VoIP and IP-based data services to parts of the fixed-line incumbent's network. The project will involve the integration of Zhone's MALC with the Nortel CS2K Softswitch and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network technology to migrate circuit-switched voice onto a packet-based network. The deployment of Zhone's MALC will enable Telecom Egypt to extend its range of services to include those based on ADSL2+, VDSL2, PON, Ethernet, and IP Video. Initially, only voice services will be migrated to the new network of the Middle East's largest fixed-line operator.

Source: Global Insight.

China is set to become the world's biggest broadband market in less than a year, according to telecoms research and consultancy firm Ovum. But despite the escalation in subscriber numbers – with a 79% compound annual growth rate in the last three years - China still has a lot more room for growth as its broadband penetration rate lags behind other Asia-Pacific countries at 3.4%. Growth is expected to come from a booming economy, rising incomes, expanding PC penetration as well as new technologies such as VoIP and IPTV and events such as the Olympic Games. Ovum predicts that broadband subscribers will reach 139 million by 2010 with a CAGR of 75%, rising from an anticipated 79 million subscribers in 2007. Currently, DSL services dominate with a market share of 71% and 32 million subscribers as of June 2006. Ethernet-based LAN services, which are popular in high-density areas, account for 26% of the market. Cable modem and wireless technologies contribute a lot less. "Operators are progressively upgrading the network using higher speed technology such as ADSL2+ and VDSL to meet increasing bandwidth demands," said Kevin Lee, senior analyst at Ovum in Hong Kong. The emergence of VoIP in the market will boost wireless broadband, enabling operators to see returns on their wireless local area networks. But growth could be stymied by the need for restructuring in the Chinese market. Up until now, cable operators have had little effect on the broadband market due to regulatory barriers. At present, there are 128 million cable TV service subscribers. However, issues such as a fragmented ownership structure and lack of expertise has prevented operators competing against DSL providers. "China needs to restructure the telecoms industry and it needs to reform the regulatory policy for broadband and IPTV," said Lee. "The possible entry of foreign players in line with WTO commitments could complicate the development of the competitive situation," he added. The deployment of IPTV services is also expected to boost broadband penetration. China Telecom and China Netcom are working with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the only IPTV licence holder. SMG launched IPTV services in the city of Harbin in May 2005 and in Shanghai later in the year. The company plans to add four more cities in the Heilongjiang province this year. China Telecom and China Netcom are the dominant providers of broadband access in China. They currently have an 87% market share. Other operators include China Tietong, China Unicom and other miscellaneous operators.

Source: Lorraine Turner, Total Telecom.

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) plans to launch a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) over Wi-Fi service using dual-mode mobile phones, ahead of a planned commercial launch in 2007. SingTel will utilise more than 330 wireless hotspots on the island state to bring the new WLAN service to customers via three Nokia phones – the E60, E61 and N80 – which all support Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based VoIP. All three devices work on 2G, 3G and WLAN networks.

 

Source: Telegeography

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has reviewed and confirmed its previous decision to regulate VoIP telephony services under the same rules as local telephone services. Operators including SaskTel reacted to the decision by complaining that it will limit consumer choice and result in higher prices than would otherwise be created by market forces. Firms in favour of the ruling include triple-play cableco Vidéotron.

Source: Telegeography

In a decision issued today re-affirming voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service as telephone service, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) declared that competition in local telephone service is taking hold more firmly than anticipated. As a result, the CRTC is taking steps to reassess certain aspects of its local forbearance framework. These rulings foster an increased reliance on market forces, and ensure that Canadian consumers continue to receive the benefits of competition, including greater choice and lower prices.

Source: CRTC.

The Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) kicks off today a Global Seminar on Quality of Service and Consumer Protection in Geneva, Switzerland. The seminar includes distinguised speakers from around the globe representing regulators, operators, and consumers. The focus of the seminar is Quality of Service (QoS) and Consumer Protection that are key components of an enabling environment for ICTs. With the advent and fast roll-out of IP networks paving the way to an all IP (NGN) digital world, the issue of quality of service and consumer protection are not only gaining increased momentum amongst the ICT regulatory community but are of vital interest to all stakeholders worldwide. This seminar provides a unique opportunity to develop a common understanding and provide answers to these timely issues. For more information, and to view the programme and documentation, see: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/Events/Seminars/2006/QoS-consumer/index.html

Kenya’s two cellular operators have been told they are slowing the introduction of lower telephony charges because they will not reduce interconnection fees for internet providers. A report from local newspaper The Standard quotes Jonathan Somen, MD at AccessKenya, who says it is imperative for Safaricom and Celtel to lower the interconnect fees they charge to ISPs for fixed-to-mobile calls so that the price reductions can be passed onto those consumers who use voice-over-IP telephony services. AccessKenya was one of the first firms to receive a VoIP licence from the regulator the CCK in November 2004.

Source: Telegeography

FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell believes in a "wait-and-see" approach that allows for market resolutions when it comes to the net neutrality debate or proposed a la carte mandates for video service providers, he told reporters during an Aug. 8 briefing at his Washington office. The wait-and-see approach is one he also favors for issues where Congress might shortly weigh in, such as video franchising reform or universal service support for broadband deployment. Commissioner McDowell said his overall regulatory approach could be distilled down to one word: freedom. "As far as the role of government goes, first of all clear out any unnecessary regulatory underbrush. Let's let free markets and free people team up together as best they can. "But should there be market failure, the government should act in a narrow fashion, [providing a] narrowly tailored cure to any perceived illness in that free market that's preferably if possible sunsetted or at least [put on] a glide path to a sunset provision [so] that once that market failure is cured then we can revert back to having a more deregulatory framework in place," he added. He predicted another major theme during his FCC tenure - his term expires June 30, 2009 - would be the "incredibly powerful consumer demand that has developed just in the past few years of consumers' wanting to pull the content of their choice through the pipe of their choice at the time and place of their choosing and manipulate that content or perhaps create their own and post it and have others pull it. I want to make sure the FCC helps facilitate that demand and ... remove any barriers to entry and any unnecessary regulatory underbrush." His own residential video and broadband communications service options are limited. His five-acre farm in the rapidly congesting Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., is too far from the local telco's central office for digital subscriber line service, and there are too many trees in the southern sky for direct broadcast satellite service, Mr. McDowell said, so he subscribes to analog, expanded basic cable service with cable modem Internet service from Cox Communications, Inc. Regarding the debate over net neutrality, Mr. McDowell said, "Net neutrality is a Rorschach term - it depends on where you sit what it means to you, so it's really not yet defined. At this point it's difficult for government to prophylactically try to address an illness that has not yet occurred. ... Let's wait and see. Let's continue to be vigilant." He added, "Where do you draw the line between legitimate network management issues and what may be determined as discriminatory anticompetitive conduct against your competitors? We'll watch and wait and be vigilant." Asked about concerns expressed by third-party content providers that broadband Internet service providers might "cut them out," the Commissioner said, "They're worried it's going to happen? Let's see if it happens and then we could go from there. Would we have the authority? Yeah, we would. But if it hasn't happened yet, let's see if it happens and go from there." He said that consumer demand "is a terrifically powerful check and balance. If a network owner is going to start restricting folks from either plugging in on the content side or a consumer from plugging in on the consumer side, [it will] eventually go out of business." In that same vein, in response to a reporter's questions about concerns that broadband Internet service subscribers might block or provide inferior service to content and application providers that don't pay extra, he said, "Don't you think if you couldn't get to Google - you and millions of others in this country - [that] there would be pitchforks and torches in the streets and government policy would change overnight - and/or private sector policy?" Asked whether the lack of FCC response to consumer concerns about wireless early termination fees (ETFs) was because consumers had failed to take to the streets with pitchforks, Mr. McDowell said, "That's certainly not the standard. ... We certainly wouldn't want any issues to rise to that level. ... We've had a few meetings on ETFs. It's a very interesting issue to me. I'm still looking into it," he added, citing his wireline focus before joining the Commission and his short time in office thus far.

Regarding video franchising - an area in which the FCC has a pending proceeding to consider whether to intervene to speed the local franchising process - Mr. McDowell said, "Let's see first what Congress does. ... It's Aug. 8 and I don't necessarily want to count out [the possibility that Congress may yet enact communications legislation this year]. ... I don't want to underestimate Sen. [Ted] Stevens [(R., Alaska), the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee]," who is working to gather enough supporters to force a vote on legislation in the Senate. He added, however, that "should Congress not be able to address that issue this year, I think the Commission does have the authority, under section 621 [of the 1934 Communications Act, as amended] in particular and other parts, and I think there is something the Commission can do to help clear out unnecessary regulatory underbrush. I also want to be sure we don't go too far. If there's a cable coax line down in your backyard and you live in Wyoming, should you be calling Washington or writing Washington to get that fixed?" He said he was still "thinking through" whether there should be a "shot clock" imposed on local franchise negotiations. As for the possibility of using universal service mechanisms to support broadband deployment, the Commissioner said that section 254(b)(3) of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which calls for advanced information and telecommunications services in rural areas "reasonably comparable" to those available in urban areas, addresses that possibility. However, he said the FCC "will wait for Congress to act." One provision of the Senate's version of HR 5252, known as the Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunities Reform Act, calls for a separate rural broadband support fund. He said there were four principles he would like to see implemented with respect to universal service: "(1) Slow the growth of expenditures in the fund - and that does not mean a cap per se; (2) in that there is waste, fraud, and abuse, let's take a look and ferret that out; (3) expand the contribution base - right now we're under this system where we take a lot from a few, the pool of the few, the shrinking, evaporating before our eyes actually; (4) everybody pays less." With respect to proposals for requiring or encouraging cable TV operators to offer video service programming on an a la carte basis, Mr. McDowell said, "It may be that consumer demand forces a private sector resolution to that question, so let's wait and see how that resolves."

ICC, Wireless Issues Discussed

As for the pending intercarrier compensation "Missoula proposal" developed under the auspices of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Mr. McDowell said, "I certainly welcome that proposal if for nothing else than to kick off a discussion. There's certainly some meritorious arguments made in that proposal. Certainly I think intercarrier compensation is something that needs to be addressed. You know it's again very complex, some argue arcane, and I will look forward to a refreshed record and rolling up my sleeves and looking at it as we go forward." Regarding the ongoing advanced wireless service spectrum auction and the upcoming 700 megahertz auction, the Commissioner said he expected them to lead to "the construction of new delivery platforms that will help spur new technologies, [and] hopefully offer more affordable services with more powerful technologies, so I'm very, very excited." In general, he said, "The wireless industry has been a terrific model of competition for the most part creating a self-regulating atmosphere. ... We want to continue to regulate with the lightest touch possible. Competition in the wireless industry has been a good example of how we can have competition with other technologies." Asked when the FCC would act on wireless carriers' requests for waivers of enhanced "911" rules with respects to handset compliance, which have been pending since last year, Mr. McDowell said, "Certainly I'd like to see some closure on that. ... It's always fair to give industry some certainty, and we'll be following up on that."

Recusal in Mergers Undecided

Asked whether he would be recusing himself from consideration of applications for approval of license and authorization transfers associated with the proposed merger of AT&T, Inc., and BellSouth Corp. the Commissioner said that under law recusal decisions are made by the FCC's general counsel. "In an adjudicatory proceeding such as a merger review or a petition for forbearance or petition for declaratory ruling where there are specific parties involved, should CompTel, my former employer, file in any of those kinds of proceedings for one year from June 1 of this year to June 1 of next year I would be automatically recused. So for that particular merger it remains to be seen," he said. "The recusal period ... actually lasts for a lifetime on rulemakings, if I was substantially involved in a rulemaking - not if CompTel filed, but if I was substantially involved in CompTel filings, which I haven't been for years," because his professional activity has been focused on Congress and the White House, he said. "The way I'm approaching it is if I'm recused, I'm not even looking at the filings," he said, adding that so far he hasn't been reading the filings and parties have not been coming in to make ex parte presentations about the proposed merger to him. He said that he didn't think parties were making such presentations to other Commissioners either right now, suggesting that the focus is still on the antitrust review at the Justice Department.

Source: Lynn Stanton, Telecommunications Reports.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear oral argument Sept. 12 in Nuvio Corp. v. FCC (case 05-1248), which involves a challenge to the FCC's May 2005 order requiring fully interconnected voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) service providers to supply enhanced "911" (E911) functionality to subscribers. Petitioners have complained that the Wireline Competition docket 05-196 order set an implementation schedule that was too short, represented an "unexplained departure from long-standing precedent," and arbitrarily and capriciously required VoIP providers to "establish direct connections with the dedicated wireline E911 network, without any corresponding duty on the part of carriers operating that network to permit such connections."

Source: Telecommunications Reports.

 

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington has set an Aug. 17 deadline for the FCC to respond to a petition from the Center for Democracy and Technology, pulver.com, and other backers of Internet privacy for an en banc rehearing of their challenge of the FCC's ruling that providers of voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) and broadband services can be subjected to the wiretap-capability obligations of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). In a decision in American Council on Education v. FCC (case 05-1404) in June, a split three-judge panel of that court upheld the Commission's order. Because the court could have rejected the rehearing request out of hand, without even seeking the FCC's input, the Information Technology Association of American viewed the court's action in an Aug. 2 order as a positive sign. ITAA Senior Vice President Mark Uncapher said it suggested the court "may be actively reconsidering" the earlier ruling.

Source: Telecommunications Reports.

Sprint Nextel Corp. has asked the FCC for a waiver of the Commission's rules requiring Internet protocol (IP) relay service providers to answer 85% of calls on any given day within 10 seconds. The waiver for the company's Sprint Communications Co. L.P. subsidiary would cover the period from May 2005 through April 2006. Sprint Nextel said it had been instructed by the FCC's Consumer & Government Affairs Bureau to seek the waiver if it wished to avoid forfeiture of all interstate telecommunications relay service (TRS) compensation for that year. However, the company said in its petition that it didn't believe the FCC has the authority to impose a forfeiture for such a cause without first issuing a notice of apparent liability.

Source: Telecommunications Reports.

The German Federal Network Agency has submitted a draft order to the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities of other states regarding Internet protocol "bitstream access," which enables competitive providers of broadband service to deliver their service over incumbents' local loops. The draft order would require Deutsche Telekom AG to provide IP-based bitstream access on nondiscriminatory terms, to keep separate accounts, and to publish a reference offer. The commission and the other regulatory authorities have a month to comment on the draft, and the Federal Network Agency will make a final decision after considering those comments.

Source: Telecommunications Reports.

The Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions published a standard to help IP-based networks support the govt.'s Emergency Telecom Service and Wireless Priority Service. The new capabilities will ensure interoperability between IP- based and circuit-switched networks, wireline and wireless, in emergencies. The "Standard for Support of Emergency Telecommunications Service in IP Networks" also describes authentication mechanisms and security requirements in such situations.

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily.

The Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions published a standard to help IP-based networks support the govt.'s Emergency Telecom Service and Wireless Priority Service. The new capabilities will ensure interoperability between IP- based and circuit-switched networks, wireline and wireless, in emergencies. The "Standard for Support of Emergency Telecommunications Service in IP Networks" also describes authentication mechanisms and security requirements in such situations.

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily.

Intervention between access and content providers to ensure net neutrality is "the wrong thing to do" in Europe, U.K. Member of European Parliament (MEP) Malcolm Harbour told a Tues. Internet Caucus "transatlantic dialogue" on Capitol Hill. But telecom framework and regulatory mandates in Europe are "perfectly sufficient" to prevent network discrimination. The European Parliament will ensure neutrality through "minimum standards" preventing degradation of existing service to nudge users and content providers to upgrade, Harbour said.

Internet Caucus Chmn. Goodlatte (R-Va.) said an antitrust standard could be "a solution to this" net neutrality dispute on the Hill "that is still not being found." He and Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) years ago urged a similar "open access" network policy with a similar standard, Goodlatte said. With net neutrality provisions shot down handily in the House and narrowly in the Senate, Washington is awash in ads "directed to 100 people," Goodlatte said, referring to the Senate. Legislators should be careful that the "enormous" investment in broadband "continues to be made based on the belief that [network providers] get a return" on their spending, he said. [...]

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 138.

MIC invites public comments on a draft report compiled by the "Study Group on a Framework for Competition Rules to Address the Transition to IP Based Networks" (Chair: Prof. HAYASHI Toshihiko, The University of the Air) during the period from July 19 through August 23, 2006.
Since October 28, 2005, MIC has been holding the Study Group for considering i) basic principles of competition rules foreseeing a full-fledged IP age, and ii) interconnection and tariff policies in the future.
After holding nine meetings including two hearings from relevant carriers and organizations, the Study Group has compiled its findings as a draft report.
Those wishing to submit comments there on, please fill in the official form using the Japanese language and submit it to MIC no later than 17:00(JST), August 23, 2006.

Source: MIC (Japan).

Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) has voiced its opposition to new so-called "triple-play" rules introduced by the Federal Competition Commission (CFC), which it claims unfairly favour cable TV operators, Dow Jones reports. "Telmex affirms that the Federal Competition Commission, or CFC, establishes a protectionist regime for cable operators to the detriment of the consumer," Telmex said in a press release. "The obvious and repeated tendency in favour of the cable operators inhibits the investment plans of telephone companies." The CFC had earlier in the month published draft rules allowing cable companies to retail voice services but barring telephone companies from offering TV services until they provide interconnection and number portability services to cable operators.

Source: Global Insight.

The US wireless broadband provider Futura Technologies says it has reached the final stages in its deployment of a WiMAX network in the city of Miami, Oklahoma. The service, dubbed FuturaWave, will cost USD29.99 for a 1.5Mbps internet connection plus a voice-over-IP package offering unlimited calls within the US and Canada. The firm says maximum transmission speeds will soon be raised to 6Mbps, with the network covering the entire city of Miami, as well as some surrounding areas. Futura’s president and CEO, Josh Garrett, comments: ‘FuturaWave wireless broadband will completely revolutionize the way that people stay connected to the internet. With speeds equal to or greater than cable or DSL, combined with a service that is portable, many consumers and business will benefit greatly from FuturaWave.’

Source: TeleGeography.

Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) has voiced its opposition to new so-called "triple-play" rules introduced by the Federal Competition Commission (CFC), which it claims unfairly favour cable TV operators, Dow Jones reports. "Telmex affirms that the Federal Competition Commission, or CFC, establishes a protectionist regime for cable operators to the detriment of the consumer," Telmex said in a press release. "The obvious and repeated tendency in favour of the cable operators inhibits the investment plans of telephone companies." The CFC had earlier in the month published draft rules allowing cable companies to retail voice services but barring telephone companies from offering TV services until they provide interconnection and number portability services to cable operators.

Source : Global Insight.

True Internet, a unit of Thai telco True Corp, will this week launch consumer VoIP telephony, initially as a PC-to-PC only service. True is aiming to provide a low-cost alternative for residential phone users, and is planning to extend the service to offer PC-to-fixed line telephony in the near future. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) granted True Internet a licence to provide internet access services and VoIP, but the regulator is yet to allow any internet licensee to provide phone-to-phone VoIP services.

Source: TeleGeography.

TeliaSonera’s International Carrier division has launched a new wholesale service, VoIP Connect, which allows other carriers to offer international VoIP telephony to their customers via TeliaSonera’s gateway without making additional investments in new telephony servers. Prior to the launch of the new platform, tests were carried out with a selected group of clients and TeliaSonera estimates that approximately 30 to 40 new customers will be using this service in the Nordic region, the rest of Europe and the US before the end of 2006. The company predicts that VoIP usage will grow by 10% per quarter in western Europe and that 30% of all broadband users will use IP telephony by the end of 2007. Source: TeleGeography.

The Philippine’s telecoms regulator the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) plans to require VoIP providers to roll out IP telephony services to specific parts of the country – to be determined by the watchdog – in return for operating licences. The proposal is similar to a scheme introduced back in the 1990s by the NTC on mobile operators, which were forced to build a certain number of fixed lines in those parts of the country deemed less economically viable, the so-called missionary areas, in exchange for concessions to operate wireless networks. The NTC hopes the move will stimulate the development of VoIP and bring down the cost of telecoms access to the average Filipino. Source: TeleGeography.

A massive effort by Internet users to prohibit telephone and cable companies from providing better service and prices to preferred customers failed to get through a Senate committee on Wednesday. After three days of debate, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved a bill intended to let phone companies and other telecommunications providers better compete in video markets now monopolized by cable companies. The measure faces an uncertain future because of the controversy over "net neutrality" - how to ensure that consumers and Internet content providers continue having open and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet. The committee rejected an amendment by U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that would prohibit phone and cable companies from limiting access to their high-speed Internet networks based on site content or financial arrangements. The vote was 11-11, and ties defeat proposed amendments. Supporters argued that service providers could give preferential treatment to business partners or use pricing and access limits to discriminate between Web sites and other Internet users. "What's at stake is the Internet in the 21st century," said Snowe, the only Republican to vote for the amendment. "This is the preservation of digital democracy." Hundreds of interest groups, ranging from the Christian Coalition to Moveon.org., joined bloggers and the big content providers such as Google Inc. (GOOG) and Amazon.com (AMZN) seeking protections from Congress against owners of high-speed broadband networks. Republicans argued against interfering in a system that so far has worked well without government regulation. Phone and cable companies say Snowe's and Dorgan's proposal would stifle investment in broadband technology. Both sides have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and advertising on the issue. Source: Dow Jones International News.

Spanish Wi-Fi start-up FON, backed byglobal internet telephony provider Skype and leading search engine Google, has begun its European roll-out. The company is planning to release 1 million internet routers, available at 5 euro (US$6.30) each, which will enable global hotspot sharing by their owners.

Source: Global Insight.

Regulatory authorities on the rise

In the five years up to 2005, the number of regulatory authorities worldwide increased by some 36 per cent, most notably on the rise in the Arab States, Africa and Asia. Figure 1 depicts the growth in the number of authorities since 1990, while Figure 2 shows the percentages in each region of the world by 2005. The Americas and Africa were the regions where the highest percentage of countries had regulators in place, while Europe had the highest number of regulatory authorities in absolute terms.

See full article: English - French - Spanish

U.S. RBOCs have been losing 150,000 subscriber lines per month so far this year. At the same time, Voice over IP (VoIP) service providers are adding about 100,000 subscribers per month. It appears that most of these -- about 100,000 per month -- are being picked up by new Voice over IP (VoIP) service providers. The balance of local service subscription losses -- about 50,000 -- are moving to wireless-only plans or canceling their secondary household lines. TeleGeography predicts that VoIP service providers will capture 22 percent of all local exchange carriers' existing customers, contributing to a cumulative loss of $18.2 billion in local service revenues between 2006 and 2010. Loss of revenues from access charges and consumer long-distance services will result in several billions of dollars of additional damage to traditional telephone service providers. Source:Telegeography

The government of Botswana announced its decision to further liberalize the telecom industry in order to increase competition with enhanced quality of service at reduced costs. The following measures will be instituted: - lift the restriction on the provision of VoIP by value-added network service providers (Aug. 2006); - mobile operators start self providing (transmission links) (Aug 2006); - current fixed line and cellular operators may apply for service-neutral licenses (Sept. 2006); - new entrants may tender for service-neutral rural/district level licenses (Sept. 2006) - liberalization of the international voice gateway (Oct. 2006) - BTC attains a satisfactory level of tariff rebalancing (Dec. 2007) - new entrants may tender for service-neutral national licenses (Dec. 2009) A decision has also been taken to privatize Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). This will be done by selling off a portion of about 40% of the equity to a strategic equity partner, 5% of the shares would be allotted to citizen employees of BTC, another portion of shares in a privatization trust fund (15-20%), and 25-30% would be retained for a future stock market listing.

Source: Press statement by Minister of Communications, Science and Technology

Verizon sued Vonage for what the Bell said are 7 counts of patent infringement related to VoIP technology, the companies said Mon. Adding difficulty to a trying month at Vonage, the suit claims the VoIP provider used technologies originally patented by Verizon and Verizon developers for its gateway interfaces, billing and fraud detection. Curiously, Verizon also cited $500 million raised by Vonage's recent IPO as a strong motivation for the suit, despite massive consensus that the IPO was a catastrophic failure.

Verizon sued in U.S. Dist. Court, Richmond, Va., over 7 patents, including technology for: (1) Termination signaling; (2) network session management; (3) DNS management; (4) IP-based name-number translation; (5) network presence software; (6) integrated services; (7) wireless public gateway management. Verizon claimed funds raised in the IPO allowed Vonage to market and advertise aggressively "services created with Verizon's appropriated technology." The Bell voiced fear that, good economic performance or not, Vonage had added 1.1 million customers the past 15 months, and now has 47% of the domestic non-cable VoIP market.

Vonage respects the valid intellectual property rights of others, the company said Mon. in a statement on its website. The VoIP provider believes its technology is its own, it said, claiming Verizon previously hadn't contacted it about the 7 patents. Vonage wouldn't comment beyond the statement, a spokesman said. [...]

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 118.

Telecom companies have much work to do to comply with FCC CALEA rules by May 14, 2007, especially since some probably don't understand the complex requirements, panelists said Thurs. on a USTelecom webinar. Developing a system to give law enforcement access to subscriber activity is hard because such data usually are distributed over multiple networks, said VeriSign Vp Raj Puri. Real time access to content requires quickly identifying and isolating all services a targeted subscriber uses, he said.

Among the "gray areas" attorney Albert Gidari described: Whether ISPs are covered if they don't provide their own broadband Internet access. Probably not, meaning Verizon would be covered by the requirements but a company that doesn't own its "access component," such as EarthLink, might not, Gidari said. Another area of uncertainty, he said, is whether gateway routers used by private networks are covered. In a recent decision upholding the FCC CALEA order, the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., said that issue isn't "ripe" for appeal, leaving the matter murky, said Gidari, who represented some parties in the appeal.

Another "open question" is how to discern between the duties of access and application providers when surveillance of VoIP is sought, Gidari said. "If the access provider has the primary obligation, what is the applications provider required to do?" he asked. Are there situations where an applications provider would have to modify its operations? Gidari asked.

A pending order will decide whether entities providing P2P or one-way VoIP can be exempted, Gidari said. The order will set criteria to weigh when making such a determination, but won't list actual exemptions, he said. Providers will have to apply to the FCC for exemption, Gidari said. FCC discretion to include "electronic communications" under the CALEA mandate could extend to email, instant messaging, P2P and other forms, though DoJ hasn't shown interest in P2P, he said.

Providers will have 2 ways to meet CALEA requirements, said VeriSign Regulatory Affairs Vp Tony Rutkowski. The "do- it-yourself" method has the provider hiring staff, setting up a security system and developing so-called capabilities that enable law enforcement to tap into communications services, he said. The other option is the "trusted 3rd party" method, in which providers give the project to outside firms. Hardware, software and interception gear costs can be high, VeriSign's Puri said. Engineering and technical staffs must decide how to connect law enforcement to the network and ensure that infrastructure on which messages are being intercepted is "isolated" from outside access, he said.

The FCC has said companies can outsource many such tasks to a trusted 3rd party, said Puri, whose company does such work. In selecting a contractor, providers should be sure the company has good security, doesn't require customers to change their network architecture and is financially stable, Puri said. -- Edie Herman

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 116.

BATELCO HITS BACK By TARIQ KHONJI MANAMA:

Batelco plans to take legal action against the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) after it ordered the company to stop pre-registering customers for a BD10 Internet package and ordered it to refund those who had already paid.

In a statement issued yesterday, the company said it was forced to pursue all legal means to defend itself against "such an unprecedented and arbitrary approach by the TRA".

Batelco also said that it was not holding any payments for the BD10 package in response to the TRA's order to refund customers who have registered.

"Batelco has been requesting approval from the TRA for this service since January 2006," the company said. "The BD10 package has met all the criteria about offering a service above cost to consumers and thus, Batelco believes, complies with the Telecommunications Law."

The TRA has insisted that Batelco offer a similar service, at wholesale rates, to its competitors.

Despite Batelco's repeated protests to the TRA that it is 'unfair and unreasonable' under the Telecommunications Law to link a retail service with a wholesale one, Batelco has since offered its competitors such a service at significantly more competitive rates than those applying to its retail customers.

Batelco said that since companies had signed up for the service, it must mean that they considered the rates to be fair, equitable and non-discriminatory. "Thus, Batelco is of the opinion that it has met the TRA conditions for the BD10 package," said the statement. "Furthermore, Batelco's offer to its competitors will stimulate strong competition and consumers will significantly benefit compared to current Internet packages.

"Batelco, as part of its submission to the TRA, did receive approval for a number of higher priced Internet packages than the BD10.

"Batelco continues to be concerned as to why the TRA now will not approve this lower priced Internet package, which will benefit consumers in Bahrain.

"Batelco can only conclude that while the BD10 retail offer meets the cost criteria under the Telecommunications Law, the TRA's action is primarily aimed at preventing Batelco from offering this product and from effectively competing in the market."

The "emergency order" issued by the TRA to stop offering customers a BD10 Internet package also asked Batelco to issue a Press release by yesterday explaining that the company wrongfully launched the package as it had not obtained the required approval and was taking steps to rectify the situation and comply with its obligations and the law. It gave Batelco 10 days to refund money to customers who it said had paid in advance for the service.

Source: Gulf Daily News

The European Regional Seminar on "Telecommunication Liberalization - Challenges and Opportunities for CEE, CIS and Baltic States", will be held in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova from 20 to 22 June 2006

The Seminar is aimed at building capacity in addressing the following major policy and regulatory issues to ensure competitive and vibrant ICT markets throughout the region and allow for the edification of the Information Society:

• Policies, strategies and regulation for liberalized markets; roles and functions of policymakers, regulators and operators.

• Key subjects of regulation – challenges in implementing effective regulation; interconnection of networks and services; VoIP regulation; and lessons learned.

• Ensuring independence and improving the efficiency of the national regulator by increasing authority and enforcement powers.

As you may be aware, ITU and infoDev are jointly developing the ICT Regulation Toolkit, an online resource for regulators and policy makers. The Toolkit includes two modules that are highly relevant to the themes of this workshop, the Legal and Institutional Framework for Regulatory Authorities and Competition, Interconnection and Price Regulation.

Israeli international telephony provider Xfone Communications has received approval from the Communications Ministry to trial IP telephony, according to Reuters. The Israeli regulator is taking a cautious approach to the introduction of VoIP, issuing permission for the launch of trial services to just a handful of alternative operators. In January 2006 012 Golden Lines had its temporary permit upgraded to become the country's first commercial VoIP concession. Two months later cellco Pelephone was handed a test licence to provide VoIP services to up to 8,500 residential and business customers for a year.

A major debate on the regulation of VoIP services was due to take place in January 2006, but the hearing was postponed due to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ill health. The debate has yet to be rescheduled and under new Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, VoIP is currently some way from the top of the agenda. Source: TeleGeography.

As agreed in Maputo, in 2005, the CEOs of African Regulatory bodies, Telecom and other Services Providers, and Policy Makers from Ministries got together in Yaoundé 7-8 June to discuss the challenges of IP Networks and related services to the African Regulators including the Voice over IP (VoIP). See the agenda and documents of the Forum on Telecommunication Regulation in Africa (FTRA-2006) (English -  French).

With this paper OPTA wishes to consult interested parties about issues related to KPN's transition towards an ALL-IP network. Closing date for reactions is June 20th 2006. (See KPN’s Next Generation Network: All-IP)

Source: OPTA.

The U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) wants to regulate Internet dialer software as a controller premium rate service (CPRS), it said Thurs. The move to regulate dialers software that switches a computer's modem setting from one Internet setting to another -- aims to handle a growing consumer problem with rogue dialers. Pay-as-you-go dial-up and unmetered dial-up Internet services would be excluded from the proposed definition of Internet dialer software, Ofcom said. The regulator earlier weighed a shift in its definition of CPRS to clarify that premium-rate services accessed by mobile phone are also regulated, but delayed action out of concern its language inadvertently might exclude reverse SMS and other data services from the scope of PRS regulation. Instead, it suggested removing the mobile services exclusion from premium rate services (PRS) rules, arguing that ordinary calls to mobile phones aren't PRS in the first place. For the same reason it proposed striking the exclusion for personal numbering and radiopaging services. Ofcom will revisit PRS regulation in the context of new services in a policy review beginning shortly, it said. That inquiry will consider whether and how to apply PRS rules to commercial services emerging from mobile, fixed telephony and broadcast, as well as growth in broadband and VoIP billings, as potential routes to content. Ofcom will approve revisions to an Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services code of practice governing premium rate services, it said Thurs.

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily.

Please see Conditions regulating Preminum Rate Services.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld Federal Communications Commission rules making it easier for the police and other law enforcement officials to wiretap Internet phone calls.

The decision was a blow to groups who had argued that federal regulators had been inconsistent when they deregulated Internet services under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, while subjecting Internet-based calls to regulation under a law giving the government wiretapping powers.

The FCC in May affirmed that providers of Internet-based phone services, known as voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, must install systems allowing the FBI, the police, and other law enforcement officials to tap into phone calls. The agency said that Internet-based phone providers must comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act starting in May 2007.

Two days later, education and civil liberties groups challenged the decision before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The groups had said that "information services" are exempt from that law, and noted that the FCC treated Internet-phone service as a deregulated "information service" under the 1996 Act.

Source: Dow Jones News Service.

US-based GlobeTel Communications says it plans to launch a VoIP-based network in Brazil. In a statement the company said it is rolling out the new network in Brazil's north-eastern region under the brand name iLigue; it plans to extend coverage to the rest of the country, although it has given no timeframe for the rollout. GlobeTel is an integrated telecoms service provider primarily offering VoIP and wireless access technologies. iLigue customers in Brazil will be able to get a US phone number which forwards calls to their Brazilian mobile phone, home phone or office phone at the local US call rate. Price plans for the new service start from under BRL50 (USD21.90) a month. Source: TeleGeography.

"It is not the government's role to force technological development, but to enable it," Austrian Secy. for Arts & Media Franz Morak told the IPv6 conference in Vienna (WID June 2 p6) Fri. R&D and awareness raising will be the main roles, Morak said. But an official of S. Korea's Ministry of Information & Communication said: "ISPs were reluctant to invest in Ipv6, so the government took an active role. The government has started projects in the public sector through which providers could feel the effectiveness of new business models and we also improved regulation to increase investment and confidence in the future market."

Both Austria and Korea claim to be ready for IPv6. Morak noted the IPv6 capability of the Austrian Internet exchange point, which can route IPv6 traffic. ITelekom Austria said 4 ISPs are IPv6-customers of the incumbent. Based on allocated IP numbers, Morak said, only Finland and Switzerland had more numbers allocated per inhabitant.

In S. Korea, wireless IPv6 connectivity went operational last year, the ministry said. There's also a pilot for IPv6 Multicast TV, said the ministry representative, and some local govts. are using sensor networks based on IPv6 for automatic reports on remote fires and other phenomena. S. Korea has an IPv6 roadmap also meant to give hardware makers a leg up in developing devices for the future IPv6 market.

"Users will go online on whatever device using the wealth of available addresses and plug & play autoconfiguration," Morak said: "Only then the Internet can become as natural as water from the tap or power." This also will help bridge the digital divide, he said.

For S. Africa, Tenet CEO Duncan Martin said, "it is not IPv6 that's most interesting for the market in South Africa, but it's the liberalization and the start of South Africa's Second National Operator (SNO) in the near future." IPv6 will not be the focus of the African Research Network Coalition Ubuntu Net for some time, he said: "First it's all about bandwidth." But a representative of the new telco said his company would offer a dual-stack Ipv4/IPv6 POP.

Eurocontrol might be able to show how fast demand for IPv6 connectivity can scale up, said Eivan Cerasi of the air traffic control group. Eurocontrol plans this month to call for tender for a pan-European IPv6-only network but may have to postpone because "we don't see a possible provider for such a network at the moment," he said. Eurocontrol began testing IPv6 in 2001 for bidirectional communication. Most airlines use IPv4 addresses with private subaddresses allocated inside their networks, so Eurocontrol can't switch the existing X25 network to IPv4. -- Monika Ermert

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 107.

Lucent Technologies today introduced a key enhancement to its portfolio of next generation network solutions that helps ensure the quality of services and allocates bandwidth based on individual subscriber or service needs, helping service providers better support bandwidth-intensive multimedia services. The Lucent Resource Manager -- an element of the Lucent Acuity next-generation network architecture that also was introduced today -- provides policy-based network resource management. Using policy management, an operator can specify rules to be applied to various types of communications in order to allocate network resources. These rules or policies determine how the network handles each communication session, including whether it is admitted and ensuring the availability of particular resources provided by specific network elements, such as the bandwidth needed to support a particular video application. This capability will help enable operators to guarantee end-to-end quality for blended services (that combine voice, data and video) over a converged IP (Internet Protocol) core network, including VoIP, IPTV and other demanding applications. It also will help enable operators to tailor network bandwidth dynamically to address changing customer demand.

Source: M2 Communications, Ltd.

Czech alternative operator Volný has revealed plans to launch voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) for mobile users by the end of the summer. Volný is introducing the new service in cooperation with Nokia and is currently testing the Finnish vendor’s E60 and E61 dual-function phones, which allow users to make calls over a GSM network as well as connect to the internet via Wi-Fi hotspots to make VoIP calls. The telco launched a fixed line VoIP service under the brand name TelefoNet in 2005.

Volný, like other Czech alternative operators GTS Novera and Radiokomunikace, had intended to become a mobile virtual operator (MVNO), but having failed to strike a deal with a mobile network operator, it now sees mobile VoIP as its way in to the market. Source: TeleGeography.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has voted 20-13 in favour of the Bipartisan Internet Freedom and Non-Discrimination Act. The act prevents broadband network providers (primarily cable TV operators and incumbent local exchange carriers - ILECs) from discriminating against content and service providers. Various ILECs have raised the possibility of 'giving faster, more efficient access to certain service providers at the expense of others', in the words of committee chairman James Sensenbrenner. They could do this in two main ways. Firstly, by prioritising the delivery of their proprietary content over the content of other service providers. Secondly, by charging content providers additional fees to ensure the delivery of bandwidth-hungry content to end-users. ILECs have argued that such fees are justifiable as they would ensure quality of service and therefore customer satisfaction. However, content and service providers have argued that such fees will increase their cost bases. They have also warned that such costs could be passed on to end-users and could potentially hamper the development of broadband content.

Source: Global Insight.

Brazilian long-distance operator Intelig Telecom expects to complete tests of its new next generation network (NGN) by July, writes BNamericas. The telco’s NGN has capacity for 500,000 users, although in the test phase only 20,000 customers have been migrated to the unified voice and data platform. The network will be used to carry traditional local and long-distance voice call services but will also handle VoIP and PABX. A spokesman for Intelig said the telco had also extended its backbone in Minas Gerais state capital Belo Horizonte and Brasília, with indirect benefits for Brazil's northeastern region, in order to better serve the corporate market. Chinese company Huawei Tecnologies supplied the NGN and DWDM technologies. Source: TeleGeography.

Telcos hope network neutrality proponents gain no ground as focus shifts to the Senate telecom bill. Both sides are working around the clock to make their points to members while the Senate bill is malleable. A Thurs. hearing won't address net neutrality, but Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens' (R-Alaska) admission that he added a net neutrality provision to the bill spurred a flurry of lobbying Wed. in a battle that sees experts stumble over definitions of the subject.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to get a ruling from the parliamentarian Thurs. that it doesn't have jurisdiction over the bill the Commerce Committee approved -- but it will get a week to write its own bill, Hill sources told us at our deadline. That decision hinged largely on net neutrality, specifically a bill by Telecom Subcommittee Ranking Member Markey (D-Mass.). Markey's bill could be included in the Judiciary bill or offered as an amendment on the floor to the House bill if Judiciary's bill doesn't make it.

"People are ready for a decision," Rep. Blackburn (R- Tenn.) told reporters after an OPASTCO breakfast. "There are business plans on the table -- certainty is a good thing," she said. Members expect a decision soon, but at our deadline House Speaker Hastert (D-Ill.) hadn't issued a statement on a ruling from the parliamentarian.

Jurisdiction also seems to be a concern in the Senate, at least on communications. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a hearing next week on competition and other communications topics. No agenda or witness list is set, but net neutrality likely will be on the agenda, committee sources said, adding that the hearing was set because the committee has interest in these issues.

"Don't be duped by advocates of network neutrality," said a "Dear Colleague" letter by Sens. Brownback (R-Kan.) and DeMint (R-S.C.). If the Internet is to be an open, evolving and market-based tool, then it's necessary to oppose the "heavy hand" of regulation embodied by network neutrality, said the letter, circulated a day before the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

Some content providers are using "fear and misinformation" to make the case for enforceable network neutrality provisions in response to broadband service providers' investment, the letter said. "Common experience suggests the opposite," it said. Network neutrality would penalize providers for making improvements and threaten to deprive parents of new technologies they could use to guard their families from online harm, it said.

But the Christian Coalition of America (CCA) casts the issue as one of free speech. Without network neutrality, pro-life Web sites might be shoved aside by a cable firm not in synch with their philosophy, CCA said. "We urge Congress to move aggressively to save the Internet -- and allow ideas rather than money to control what Americans can access," CCA Pres. Roberta Combs said. -- Anne Veigle.

Source:  Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 96.

Small ISPs should fight to keep telecom bills off the House and Senate floors, David Isenberg, founder of Isen.com, said Wed. at ISPCON here. Should the bills reach reconciliation, the closed-door sessions likely would see even a weak net neutrality provision under consideration be yanked, especially in "lame duck" session, with politicians eyeing the door. The net neutrality debate has been skewed by the "lies" of cable carriers and telcos, Isenberg said. ISPs should get into the fight and set the record straight, he said.

Isenberg, a longtime AT&T Bell Labs staffer, advocates the "stupid network," where data go unmanaged. He said telcos face strong business pressure to make networks "intelligent" by managing data because the current network model "begs the question 'What does the telco sell?'" This is driving the top 20% of customers -- who drive 80% of Bell business, Isenberg said -- to other content providers. Between March 2007 and Nov. 2010, the entire group will be lost to carriers, he said, citing that shift as the reason carriers are desperate to control the network.

Desperation is driving the firms to "bullshit Congress," with what he labeled "lies": (1) That video services will clog the Internet; (2) That it will be costly to build out the new generation network; (3) That network neutrality is a brand new concept; (4) That the Internet isn't regulated.

The first 2 claims hold only if you assume the existence of "active discrimination," Isenberg said. He quoted Gary Bachula on behalf of Internet 2, when, testifying in Congress, he said it's "far more cost effective to simply provide more bandwidth" than to run a high-speed multipurpose network. Net neutrality was the law until a recent trend to deregulation at the FCC and in the courts, while neutrality principles go all the way back to the 1934 Act and even Roman common law, said Isenberg. The Bells are trying to warp historical precedent by removing the principles, he said, not the other way around. The same thinking can apply to Internet oversight, which has existed as long as the Internet has been a consumer service, he said: "Regulation made the Internet possible."

Isenberg compared 2 of the debate's interest groups, SavetheInternet.com and Hands Off the Internet (HOI). He said the membership of SavetheInternet.com -- which ranges from independent academics to Gun Owners of America -- speaks to the group's impartiality, while HOI comprises Bells, cable carriers and affiliates. He disputed HOI's claim that "only 2" examples of site blocking can be found, "both in Canada." He asked for ISP representatives how many had experienced site blocking; about 12 raised a hand. When he asked how many had experienced Port 25 blocking, more than a quarter of those present put hands up.

"Every application we know and love" has been the result of innovation at the edge of the network, rather than by major carriers, Isenberg said. Large firms with "empires to defend" don't innovate at the application or content level, he said. The Internet does need tweaking, he said, particularly at the provisioning level. Due to this, he said, "we need to preserve net neutrality as a do-no-harm precaution" while smaller ISPs, content providers and manufacturers experiment "like they can't." -- Ian Martinez

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 96.

Consumer demand for niche programming will drive cable operators to provide more video services over IP in the long run, cable and consumer electronics engineers told us. "When our customers begin requesting these services... we are prepared," said CableLabs CEO Dick Green. "Because of the way the cable plant has been designed, the architecture lends itself well for a migration." Cable companies are already experimenting with IP for video delivery.

Time Warner tested an IPTV service for some San Diego subscribers but isn't talking about the results, it said. Comcast and other companies use IP to handle parts of their VoD service, such as sending requests for programming to the headend. While IP services such as broadband and VoIP are already boosting the industry's bottom line, companies haven't widely deployed major IPTV services.

Cable operators have a network that can deliver the same IPTV product that some phone companies offer, but cable modems don't have the capacity to handle video channels, said Scientific Atlanta Vp-Emerging Business, Transmission Network Systems Paul Connolly. "Right now, the DOCSIS data network does not have the capacity to carry video channels," but the new DOCSIS standard under development at CableLabs could solve that problem, Connolly said: "I think you'll see pre- DOCSIS 3.0 implementation in testing trials very soon. But it's a few years out before you see commercial deployment of wideband DOCSIS switching video."

Cable companies will move to a switched architecture "when they can economically prove it's viable," Connolly said. Cable's MPEG-2 video compression standard works well for the service it provides today because companies don't have to invest in expensive headend equipment to reformat video signals from their content providers, Connolly said. Advanced compression, though costly at the headend, will provide companies that use switched digital distribution limitless capacity, he said.

Incumbent Telefónica del Perú announced on Tuesday (16 May) that it is trialling a satellite-based VoIP system for rural areas. This trial is being conducted in the Canta region, 105 km northeast of the capital. The system is being provided by Siemens and to provide the service the operator is using the Spanish satellite fleet operator Hispasat.

Significance: If the trial and the feasibility project are successful, Telefónica del Perú will be able to offer telephony and internet services in other rural regions with no telecommunications services. Therefore, the operator aims to increase its portfolio of services by implementing a cheaper and faster solution.

Source: Global Insight.

The Italian Communications' Regulatory Authority ("ICRA") has issued its decision no. 11/06/CICR which regulates the provision of Voice over Internet Protocol Services and makes the necessary amendments to the national telephone numbering plan. (the "VoIP Decision")

The VoIP Decision comes after auditions of BT-Albacom, Wind, Vodafone, Eutelia, Telecom Italia, Fastweb and, lastly, AIIP - which groups 45 Internet providers and several contributions from other operators acquired through a public consultation procedure on a regulation proposal.

VoIP is the acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol (IP) and refers to the use of IP transport technology for delivery of voice information. Generally speaking, this means sending digitally-encoded voice information in packets rather than through the public (circuit) switched telephone network (PSTN). The protocols used range from SIP and H.323 standardized by IETF and ITU to proprietary solutions like the Skype protocol. Since VoIP signals are transmitted in packets, such transmissions are very much suited to be routed through IP networks, no matter if local, regional or global. Also VoIP transmissions may be used either on public and closed networks.

When regulating VoIP, the main two issues on the table were (i) deciding whether VoIP services were to be regulated as PATS Telephony (i.e. Publicly Available Telephony Services) or not; and (ii) deciding whether nomadic services could use geographical numbering or not.

The above two issues "make the difference" in qualyfing a communication service: the world-famous Skype service does not qualify as PATS telephony because of its refusal to meet obbligations to offer access to emergency numbering in States which have such requirement; also, nomadic telephony is fundamental for VoIP development: such feature means that VoIP operators may sign up new accounts regardless of the Internet provider which connects the user to the Internet and ensure the user with the ability to stay connected to his/her geographical numbering from any (broadband) Internet connection; in fact the user can be, anywhere in any country providing nomadic VoIP and so does the VoIP provider.

The VoIP Decision allows operators providing VoIP telephony services to provide PATS telephony through VoIP technology should they wish to so, without having to meet PATS regulations as traditional telephony operators and without having to pay the relevant public service charges.

As for nomadic services (and number portability towards fixed lines as well) they are introduced and a special numbering ("5") is assigned exclusively to VoIP services.

The result is that an attorney may stay in touch with his/her desk while advising a client abroad, a consultant may have a fixed number where clients may reach him/her, someone with multiple residences may live with only one set of contacts, etc.

Some proprietary systems available on the Internet are, in fact, already offering a nomadic service but not providing national Italian geographic numbering for its fixed line-to-IP services; in addition, as mentioned above, some services use a proprietary protocol and therefore refuse VoIP-to-VoIP interconnection: users may talk to each other only in the a community which, on the other hand, may be very large.

The VoIP Regulation opens VoIP "5" numbering to listing in the national telephone directories, apparently users without a "5" numbering would not be entitled to such listing.

VoIP operators will welcome the introduction of the so-called "Electronic communication services", defined as "those services, normally provided for remuneration, which consist wholly or mainly, in the conveyance of signals on Electronic Communications Networks". The aforementioned definition is provided on the basis of that contained in the Framework Directive (Art. 2c) but has been extended to comprise television; the definition indeed specifies that "telecommunication services and network transmission services, employed for circular television and radio broadcasting are to be considered as Electronic Communicaton Services, except for services providing content transmitted through networks and electronic communication services, or services exerting editorial control over the [transmitted] contents; furthermore information society services (...) are excluded from the scope of the definition when not consisting wholly or mainly in transmissions of signals on electronic communication networks."

The above defintion is rather complex to sort out as it comprises numerous kinds of service provisions, but this is not to be regarded as a defect of the VoIP Decision: perhaps a so structured ECS definition is the key to regulating future VoIP content provision services while keeping network and content regulation from interfering with VoIP.

In fact, should television content be transmitted via VoIP, such content would fall within control of entities qualified as ECS services only for the "transport" part, whereas editorial control would be regulated by existing television regulation and, also, intellectual property regulatons would apply for the relevant part.

For a better understading, it is important to note that PATS is a subcategory of ECS when considering VoIP so every VoIP service, even if proprietary, qualifies as ECS but not as PATS whereas every VoIP operator providing PATS is also providing ECS.

So, in theory, should a proprietary system wish to broadcast a TV show, the VoIP Decision would apply, whereas it would not apply as far as number portability is concerned.

This is only the initial Regulation, ICRA is to provide detailed regulation on each point of the VoIP Decision (e.g. interoperability, nomadic services, ECS, etc.).

The VoIP Decision is however to be regarded as a promising opportunity to bring innovation in the Italian communications' market.

Source: Mondaq Business Briefing.

The U.K. telecom regulator should go easy on VoIP regulation, VoIP providers said Tues. Responding to an inquiry by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) on regulation of Internet voice services, the Internet Telephony Services Providers' Assn. (ITSPA) said it has "significant concerns" about Ofcom's proposals. While the industry agrees with the need to ensure maximum access to emergency services, ITSPA said it worries Ofcom might make it harder for VoIP providers to furnish emergency access. It urged the regulator to: (1) Recognize that VoIP offers a "vital third means" of access to emergency services after traditional and mobile telephony. (2) Ensure that any regulation is enforceable against non- U.K. VoIP providers so U.K. companies aren't put at a competitive disadvantage and consumers aren't deprived of protection by unscrupulous offshore companies. (3) Make number portability as easy as possible for consumers and businesses. (4) Make regulations proportionate to all voice services providers, and refrain from imposing excessive rules on an emerging industry. (5) Consider industry self- regulatory approaches before regulating.

Source: Warren's Washington Internet Daily, Volume 7; Issue 95.

Until the end of the year, Skype's Canada- and U.S.-based subscribers to SkypeOut, which allows users to make calls from their PCs to landlines and mobiles, are able to make free calls to Canadian and U.S. landlines and mobiles. Calls to other countries remain charged out at current SkypeOut rates. The eBay-owned company has not clarified whether this is a temporary offer to encourage uptake of both Skype and SkypeOut, or whether it may last longer than this year.

Source: My Insight.

Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera has struck a deal to acquire Norway’s second largest DSL provider, Bergen-based NextGenTel. TeliaSonera said in a statement that it had acquired 82.3% of the shares in the company for about NOK1.54 billion (USD253.7 million), and will now present a public offer to the remaining shareholders to buy out their investments at an equal price of NOK65.5 per share, a 45% premium on NextGenTel’s Monday closing price.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, NextGenTel launched operations in the business sector in March 2000. It now offers both residential and corporate ADSL/SHDSL services via its own infrastructure and through wholesale agreements with Telenor. Operating from offices in Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger and Kristiansand, by the end of December 2005 it accounted for 15% of the country's broadband subscribers. At the start of 2006 NextGenTel expanded its coverage by acquiring power utility Agder Energi's ADSL network and customer base on the southern coast of Norway (under the LOS brand name). Under the deal, it took control of around 10,000 residential broadband customers and ADSL infrastructure spanning 72 local exchange offices (LEOs).

Source: TeleGeography.

Internet service provider AOL France has selected Axiom Systems for the design and implementation of advanced IP and broadband services. In an announcement at TeleManagement World in Nice, AOL said it would use Axiom’s AXIOSS platform for operational support systems (OSS) functionality to support applications and shorten the time between new service conception and delivery to the market.

Souce: TeleGeography.

Alcatel has announced that it has signed a contract with Telecom Egpyt to upgrade part of its network to IP and introduce VoIP services. Under the contract, Alcatel will migrate part of Telecom Egypt's network from TDM to IP. Components of Alcatel's IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) solution, including the Alcatel 7510 and 7515 Media Gateways, as well as the Alcatel 7510 and 7515 Media Gateways, will be deployed. These will allow Telecom Egypt to offer IP-based multimedia services and VoIP.

Source: Global Insight.

The Colombian Communications Ministry yesterday placed a restriction on long-distance VoIP, according to local newspaper La República. In other words, operators that do not hold a Long Distance (LD) licence will not be allowed to offer long-distance VoIP, only PC-to-PC calls. Moreover, trunking and mobile operators are not allowed to route their LD calls through the internet and therefore both operators will have to use the services from the three licensed LD operators: Colombia Telecomunicaciones; Orbitel; and Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá (ETB). Source: Global Insight.

British supermarket chain Sainsbury's has commenced selling credit vouchers for VoIP upstart Skype across its British stores. Under the deal, which the supermarket claims is the first of its kind in Europe, customers will be able to buy Skype vouchers at more than 600 Sainsbury's stores across the country. It added that it would consider stocking Skype headsets and handsets as the vouchers popularity rises. Commenting on the tie-up, Sainsbury's commercial manager Adam Zeiderman said: 'We think our customers will welcome the convenience of being able to purchase inexpensive worldwide internet calls when they shop.'
Source: My Insight.

HanseNet has become the first German operator to launch triple-play services, bundling voice telephony, internet access and television-over-ADSL. Its IP TV service, branded Alice Home TV, will cost 9.90 euro (US$12.71) per month, including a decoder, and enables customers to receive 60 free channels. The telco, the German unit of Telecom Italia, is also planning to introduce around 40 pay- TV channels. HanseNet expects to attract 10,000 IP TV customers by the year-end and 100,000 by end-2007. Source: My Insight.

The Governor in Council (GIC) has referred the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC's) Telecom Decision CRTC 2005-28, Regulatory Framework for Voice Communication Services Using Internet Protocol — the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) decision — back to the Commission for reconsideration.

"After careful study of the CRTC decision, and the subsequent appeals, the government believes it is in the public interest for the CRTC to reconsider its decision," said the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry. "This will give the CRTC the opportunity to take into account the increase in demand for VoIP services and changes to the overall regulatory environment since the original decision was announced last year." Source: Industry Canada. Please see:

http://www.ic.gc.ca/cmb/welcomeic.nsf/cdd9dc973c4bf6bc852564ca006418a0/85256a5d006b972085257165006d7603!OpenDocument

One in five U.S. households to have VoIP by end of 2010. New research indicates that 5.4 million U.S. households now subscribe to Internet telephony services, up from 2.7 million a year ago according to TeleGeography. Almost one in five U.S. households are expected to subscribe to VoIP services by the end of 2010, equating to 21 million subscribers.

Worryingly for the large U.S. telecoms service providers, 2.8 million of the households have cancelled their local phone lines and taken out a VoIP service from a cable operator. The research group notes that Verizon lost more than 8% of its residential phone subscribers by the end of 2005. In financial terms, subscriber migration to VoIP services will equal US$13.9 billion in lost long-distance revenue over the next five years and US$17.4 billion in local phone revenue.

In an attempt to stem the flow of subscribers going to rival VoIP service providers, Verizon has cut its own VoIP prices from $34.95 to $24.95 per month. This places Verizon's VoiceWing VoIP service in the same category as Vonage but below cable MSOs such as Time Warner and Comcast, which typically charge US$40 per month for a bundled VoIP package. TeleGeography sees Verizon's price cuts as a "wise defensive move" despite the risks of cannibalising its own voice revenue.

Telcos need to win back customers from cable operators or at the very least discourage customers from cancelling their fixed-line service, the research-group added. Source: Total Telecom

The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) is looking to drive the international standardisation for IPTV with the creation of a Focus Group to address what it sees as a market need for accelerated IPTV deployment.

The establishment of the group follows an agreement reached at a public consultation meeting where around 120 experts from the world's leading ICT companies backed up the ITU's role in the coordination of global IPTV standards. The ITU said the decision was made because of the benefits of worldwide standards for all players in the IPTV value chain and the need to achieve rapid progress to avoid market fragmentation.

IPTV will help pave the way for players, many of whom are already moving to IP-based NGN infrastructure, to offer a triple-play of video, voice and data.

The ITU is of the opinion that standards are necessary in order to give service providers, whether traditional broadcasters, ISPs or telecommunication service providers, control over their platforms and their offerings. It believes that standards here will encourage innovation, help mask the complexity of services, guarantee quality of service (QoS), ensure interoperability and ultimately help players remain competitive.

The mission of IPTV FG is to coordinate and promote the development of global IPTV standards taking into account the existing work of the ITU study groups as well as other standards development organizations (SDOs), forums and consortiums.

In particular, the IPTV FG will: Define IPTV; identify scenarios, drivers and relationships with other services and networks; identify requirements and define framework architecture; review and gap analysis of existing standards and ongoing works; identify opportunities for ITU; identify activities that ITU would encourage other organisations to pursue; coordinate existing standardisation activities; harmonise the development of new standards and encourage interoperability with existing systems where possible.

Source: Broadcast Engineering News.

In order to realize a ubiquitous network society where everything and everyone will be interconnected by enabling a smooth transition of the entire Internet infrastructures from IPv4 to IPv6, MIC carried out model verification experiments including verification of effectiveness of IPv6 in various application environments and reliability of the IPv4 - IPv6 transition models. MIC releases the report of IPv6 Transition Field Trial to the public. Source: MIC.

The APEC-TEL 33 Regulatory Roundtable focussed on VoIP and fixed-mobile convergence regulatory trends in the region. Country presentations and other documents may be accessed here.

WiMAX is commercially available in Algeria, while several operators in other Arab countries have started testing the service. Smart Link Communication (SLC) has deployed WiMAX to provide broadband wireless services in Algeria. SLC's goal is to build a wireless broadband backbone covering the national territory, to develop the metropolitan broadband networks, and to set up an independent new generation telecom infrastructure. On July 25, 2005, SLC launched the first national multi-services network. The deployment of this network makes it possible to develop services based on Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), VoIP, Virtual Private Network (VPN-IP MPLS). Algeria's tough and mountainous terrain makes it an ideal candidate for wireless connectivity solutions. More
Source: Balancing Act, Issue 302.

The number of European telecoms operators deploying voice-over-IP is growing, driven by local loop unbundling and the move towards fixed-mobile convergence, according to VoIP equipment vendor Sonus Networks.

One of the key drivers for alternative network operators in particular is "this whole local loop unbundling phenomenon," Hassan Ahmed, CEO of Sonus Networks, told Total Telecom on Monday. A number of altnets in the U.K. have announced their involvement in local loop unbundling, aided by the "very intelligent" regulatory situation, said Ahmed. These players are not going to build on old, circuit-switched technology, he added; broadband infrastructure will be the underlying technology for voice. "LLU has created a market," said Ahmed. The majority of the U.K.'s major ISPs have outlined plans for LLU, including Bulldog, Pipex, Wanadoo, Tiscali, Easynet, PlusNet, Carphone Warehouse and AOL. The same technology will underlie mainstream operators, Ahmed continued. VoIP on the edge will be driven by having a broadband IP last mile to the customer. "Those operators are typically not early adopters," he noted. They have to build the fibre first, while altnets "do it over DSL". The move towards fixed mobile convergence is also proving an important driver for VoIP and IP-based services. "Operators are competing by bundling services," said Ahmed, with IP being the key infrastructure on which to do this. Triple-play has become quadruple-play, or "the grand slam", with mobile services added to the telephony/broadband Internet and TV bundle.
Source: Total Telecom

The Algerian regulator ARPT took the brave step of allowing 24 ISPs an experimental licence at the end of April 2004. After the revision its licensing framework, the first VoIP operator (EEPAD) was granted authorization to operate a year later in April 2005. Russell Southwood reports on how this legalisation has begun to transform the market. See Issue No 300,  http://www.balancingact-africa.com

"The debate in the US over net neutrality highlights a core broadband issue - the cost of broadband Internet capacity is rising, and someone must pay. Telcos have other options besides making companies like Google pay extra for QoS, but content providers may have little choice if they want to offer video For all the talk about "convergence" these days, there are still times when it's clear that the telecoms and IT camps don't always mesh well."

"For now, the issue is primarily confined to the US market, but its implications for the broadband sector could be far-reaching in the near future. Politics, posturing and ideology aside, the Net neutrality argument highlights a chief problem in the current overall broadband scheme. In the race to roll out broadband access and grab market share quickly, many service providers have used all-you-can-eat flat-price offers to lure customers. And it's worked like a treat. The problem is that as users start to chase content that's not only bandwidth-intensive but also sensitive to latency, QoS will become increasingly important to specific types of content. Either way, their backbone costs are going up as a result". Full article, Source: telecomasia.net

A House-sponsored bill proposing the deregulation of voice-over-IP (VoIP) services in the Philippines is nearing approval, having passed its second reading in the House of Representatives. The third reading is ‘just ministerial’ and should lead to the adoption of a consolidated law on the matter. In 2005 several measures were proposed to deregulate the market – including House Bills 3476 and 3644 – designed to open commercial VoIP to non-telecommunications companies. Source: TeleGeography

According to the Monday edition of the Nikkei Business Daily, Japanese giant NTT will begin commercial trials this December of a next-generation network (NGN) based on IP technology. Testing will be conducted by regional carriers NTT West and NTT East in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area and in Osaka. NTT claims that its NGN will allow consumers to exchange video, with a picture resolution on a par with high-definition television. The telco plans to launch full NGN services sometime during 2007. Source: Telegeography

VoIP  applications  have  the  potential  to  reduce  prices  for  voice  communications  and  enhance competition in voice markets by lowering entry barriers to these markets. Some incumbent PSTN operators are responding to VoIP competition by transforming their networks into IP-based networks, offering new, additional services such as broadband Internet access, video, flat-rated call packages, and their own VOIP services. For full document, click here. Source: OECD.

ITU/BDT is pleased to present the seventh edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform, an integral part of our dialogue with the world’s information and communications technology (ICT) policymakers and regulators. This 7th edition has been released at a time of remarkable transformation of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, fueled by a combination of technological, market, policy and regulatory developments. These changes include unparalleled numbers of voice telephone subscribers, the rise of IPenabled networks and Voice over IP (VoIP) services, initial—yet promising—deployment of fixed line broadband and broadband wireless access (BWA) services and intelligent radio devices. At the same time that developed countries are busy planning for the deployment of next generation networks and visualize a world of ubiquitous networks, most developing countries have expanded their continuing quest to provide universal access to basic voice services to include universal access to broadband internet services. Are developing countries making any progress in this quest? How can regulators harness the potential of new technologies and innovative business models to foster ICT sector development?... Summary

The World Telecommunication Development Conference 2006 opens in Doha, Qatar, with a call to connect all communities by 2015.

This follows a key decision of the World Summit on the Information Society, which concluded last November in Tunis, to ensure that all villages, schools, libraries and local governments will be connected to information and communication technologies (ICT) by 2015.

The Doha meeting is the first major world development conference of the year, and the first gathering of experts to focus on the implementation of the road map laid out by world leaders at the World Summit on the Information Society, which concluded last November in Tunis.

Doha Action Plan to meet the goals of development: At a Press conference on the eve of the opening, Roberto Blois, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) stated, "In order to reach the WSIS goal of connecting all communities, we have to tailor the potential of technology to the needs of humanity, especially remote communities and vulnerable sections of the population." He added that it would be necessary to develop low-cost rural telecommunication systems and make broadband and wireless telephony more accessible and affordable. Mr Blois said, "In keeping with these overall objectives, the WTDC-06 Doha Action Plan will consider two new global initiatives intended to benefit persons with disabilities, and promote telecommunications for use during emergencies and for disaster prevention and mitigation."

Blois said that following the success of the landmark World Summit on the Information Society people around the world are looking at ITU for leadership in implementing the objectives of an inclusive Information Society. "ITU has grown in stature," he said.

Vision of Qatar: Welcoming the Press to WTDC-06, Dr Hessa Al Jaber, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar), said that WTDC will provide a unique opportunity for developing countries to share their experiences and consolidate the success of WSIS. Dr Hessa continued, "His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, has set forth the vision for a progressive State of Qatar where thought and creativity can prosper, where political reforms and the people's participation in decision-making are no longer an option but a necessity, where women are granted a wide scope in effective participation in the development process, where the private sector has greater opportunities to participate in the development process, and where the resulting modern economic base provides citizens with equal opportunities and open horizons so that they can achieve higher standards of living."

Dr Hessa emphasized that the key objective is to be part of promoting international cooperation, regional initiatives and partnerships that can sustain and strengthen telecommunication infrastructure in developing countries, so the digital divide will decrease. She said, "WTDC-06 will provide an excellent opportunity for developed and developing countries to share their unique aspirations and insights. It represents a landmark in the march of the international community to achieve the WSIS Principles."

Promoting Global Cybersecurity: Director of the ITU Development Bureau (BDT) Hamadoun Touré said that some of the major technological challenges include building broadband and wireless networks, the evolution of next generation networks and the convergence of computing power and radio-spectrum management.

Looking at future trends, Hamadoun Touré said, "New technological developments bring new challenges, such as enabling universal access to ICT, as well as growing difficulties created by spam and the increasing threats to the security of ICT-based infrastructure and systems." He added, "WTDC will develop a blueprint for these new challenges".

The World Summit on the Information Society endorsed ITU's role in ensuring security in the use of ICT. "Cybersecurity is critical in the use and development of ICT," said ITU Deputy Secretary-General Roberto Blois. "With the exponential growth in the use of cyberspace for mission-critical services, the fight against cybercrime has become a necessity."

In today's interconnected and increasingly networked world, societies are vulnerable to a wide variety of threats, including deliberate attacks on critical information infrastructures with debilitating effects on our economies and on our societies. In order to safeguard ICT systems and infrastructure and in order to instil confidence in online trade, commerce, banking, telemedicine, e-government and a host of other applications, it has become vital to develop a global culture of cybersecurity.

"Unless these security and trust issues are addressed, the benefits of the Information Society to governments, businesses and citizens cannot be fully realized", said Blois.

Two Essential Reports Launched in Doha:

1st - Telecommunication/ICT Development Report: Measuring ICT for Social and Economic Development

One of the two key reports on ICT launched today in Doha on the occasion of the World Telecommunication Development Conference - World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2006 on Measuring ICT for Social and Economic Development - examines current trends and developments in the telecommunication/ICT sector and highlights the importance of ICT for development.

In a presentation to the Press, Vanessa Gray, Telecommunication Analyst at ITU said that the telecommunication industry has experienced continuous growth as well as rapid progress in policy and technological development, resulting in an increasingly competitive and networked world.

"There are now more ICT users worldwide and more people communicating than at any other time in history," said Gray. "By the end of 2004, the world counted a total of 3 billion telephone subscribers, 1.8 billion mobile subscribers and 1.2 billion fixed lines. Both the number of mobile subscribers and the number of internet users more than doubled in just four years. The world had over 840 million internet users, which means that on average 13 per cent of the world's population was online."

Overall, the digital divide has been reduced.. "Our statistics show that within four year, from 2000 to 2004, the gap separating the developing and the developed countries has been shrinking in terms of mobile subscribers, fixed telephone lines and Internet users", said Gray. The gap (or digital divide) is measured by dividing the ICT penetration rate in the developed world by the ICT penetration rate in the developing world. "Phenomenal growth rates in the mobile sector, particularly, have been able to reduce the gap from 9 in the year 2000, to 4 by the end of 2004. This gap has also been reduced in terms of fixed lines, from 6 to 4 in four years, and from 15 to 8 in terms of Internet users", Gray explains.

Yet, major differences persist in penetration levels. In 2004, almost one third of the population in Europe and the Americas was online, compared to 8 per cent in Asia and the Pacific. Europe has almost 15 times the internet penetration of Africa, where less than 2 per cent use the internet. In the Arab states, too, less than 6 out of 100 people are online.

As for broadband access, Africa and the Arab states are lagging behind Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America which account for 97 per cent of all subscribers.

"The good news," according to Gray is that "high growth rates, technological innovation and progress in the mobile sector are extremely promising and providing exciting opportunities in the area of wireless broadband." The report states that mobile is clearly the prevailing (and often only) technology for telecommunication access in developing and rural regions, and broadband deployment will most likely be through wireless access (BWA) technologies like 3G but also WiMAX and WiFi.

2nd - 2006 Trends in Telecommunication: Regulating in a Broadband World

The second report launched today - Trends in Telecommunication - identifies a regulatory framework designed to enable developing countries to meet their broadband objectives. Doreen Bogdan, Head of Regulatory Reform Unit at ITU said, "Today, advances in broadband wireless access technologies encourage us to believe that the mobile miracle can be repeated with other ICTs, such as the internet and broadband, given the right regulatory conditions."

The optimism rests on the fact that the developing world has made great advances with mobile voice networks. Bogdan added, "Empowered by the WSIS commitments, we are very optimistic that the digital divide can be bridged and the Information Society achieved in both rural as well as urban areas."

Today's broadband challenge requires a dynamic response and an end to "business as usual". According to Bogdan, "Regulators have an unprecedented opportunity to speed the uptake of broadband. Old regulatory practices designed to protect legacy operators can be re-tooled as broadband-promoting frameworks."

New broadband technologies can connect even remote communities by

-Building synergies with other infrastructure sectors, universities and private leased lines to deploy fibre backbones

-Fostering local broadband networks by community stakeholders

-Using incremental nature of new technologies to promote broadband deployment as demand grows

The world of broadband is open to a whole new range of players, as long as the regulatory framework does not prohibit small broadband providers to enter the market. The new vision for broadband regulation entails reducing regulatory burdens, providing innovative incentives, and coordinating efforts by all links in the broadband value chain to unleash commercial and non-commercial deployment opportunities.

Turning to the applications of broadband, Doreen Bogdan said, "As Voice over IP (VoIP) is turning the old telecom business model on its head, it also offers a cheaper communication alternative to millions of users across the world." The rise of VoIP has prompted an array of regulatory responses, from outright bans to full legalization.

"Spam is another challenge raised by broadband," said Bogdan. "So far, existing ant-spam laws have had little effect as most laws target spammers, not the ISPs that carry spam." She is of the opinion that time may be ripe for anti-spam authorities to work with ISPs who can be instrumental in fighting spam. "One possibility," Bogdan said, "is the establishment of enforceable codes of conduct that would require ISPs to prohibit their customers from using ISPs as a source of spam."

The pace of broadband development hinges on the regulatory framework. It is essential to adapt to the changing technologies, as there is increasing evidence that some of the applications that are having the greatest impact on the economy and society are closely linked to broadband uptake.

Vanessa Gray explained that there is clear evidence that ICTs have a direct impact on social and economic development. But the greatest impact of ICTs is indirect, by transforming the way individuals, businesses and people work, shop, learn, interact, and communicate. "ICTs have truly transformed the world," said Gray. "And while it is actually not that easy to measure the concrete and quantifiable impact of ICTs, there are growing efforts to assess the changes that ICTs have made."

As ITU Deputy Secretary-General Roberto Blois said, "It is important to seize the digital opportunities and transform them for the common good of people everywhere." The Doha Action Plan will provide just this opportunity.

ITU

The Italian regulator approves regulations for the provision of VoIP services and the integration into the National Numbering Plan (Delibera n. 11/06/CIR, L’Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni, Disposizioni regolamentari per la fornitura di servizi VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) e integrazione del piano nazionale di numerazione) Link to the regulations (in Italian). 

The Commission for Communications Regulation today published a consultation document that looks at the existing framework for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services.

The utilisation of VoIP services is growing in Ireland, particularly at this point in the business market, and this provides the basis for enhanced competition and choice for consumers. ComReg is keen to ensure that innovative services such as VoIP are available for the benefit of consumers. ComReg proposes, as previously indicated, to carry out a review of progress to date and try to identify whether further measures are necessary or appropriate at this time.

The initial framework sought to focus on encouraging both consumer protection and increased competition in the telecommunications market. One measure to encourage the uptake of VoIP services which was put in place at that stage was the designation of a new range of numbers (beginning with the prefix “076”). Currently, 20 different service providers have been allocated numbers from this range.

Responses to this consultation are invited until close of business on Thursday the 13th of April 2006. Source: ComReg.

Ofcom today published new proposals on its approach to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. VoIP services deliver telephone calls over broadband connections rather than traditional telephone networks.

These new services offer consumers the prospect of benefits including lower calls prices (especially for calls from one VoIP service to another), and other sophisticated services such as call handling and unified messaging. Since Ofcom published its interim guidance on VoIP services in 2004, these services have developed significantly in terms of the choice of providers, the services offered and the equipment that customers use.

Awareness of these new services continues to increase, particularly among broadband customers, and industry estimates suggest that there are now more than 500,000 active VoIP users in the UK. Take-up growth is forecast to continue and as more people start to use VoIP services, Ofcom is required to ensure that regulatory requirements are continually adapted to meet the needs of both customers and providers.

Ofcom is proposing a code for VoIP service providers to ensure customers are given important information about service capability. Ofcom is also updating its guidance to encourage VoIP providers to offer access to 999 emergency services and to help them comply with existing regulation of voice services, including requirements for Publicly Available Telephone Services (PATS).

The closing date for responses is 3 May 2006. The full consultation document is available on Ofcom's website at: www.ofcom.org.uk.

Consultation Documents: Regulation of VoIP Services

OECD, Working Party on Telecommunication and Information Services Policies:

" This paper conceptually classifies VoIP as a substitute service for traditional telephone service and as a service differentiated from traditional voice to explain the possible consequent regulatory treatments to VoIP. This paper also links the service classification to numbering policy, social obligations, interconnection (or access), and market definitions for ex-ante regulations because it is quite helpful to explain the regulatory treatment of VoIP compared with those of PSTN voice services without assumptions that the linkages between those policies can be applied to all member countries or that the linkages should be kept in the process of finding out desirable policy directions for VoIP."

From The Policy Implications of Voice Over Internet Protocol

In this Decision, the Commission approves on a final basis TELUS Communications Inc. Tariff Notice 182, Former TELUS Communications Inc. Tariff Notice 551 and TELUS Communications (B.C.) Inc. Tariff Notice 4236, and denies MTS Allstream Inc. (MTS Allstream) Tariff Notice 569. The Commission directs Aliant Telecom Inc. (Aliant Telecom), Bell Canada, MTS Allstream and Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel) to file tariff revisions to their respective tariffs to allow voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service providers access to zero-dialed emergency call routing service (0-ECRS).

Following the Commission's approval of these tariff revisions to their respective 0-ECRS tariffs, Aliant Telecom, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream and SaskTel are directed to migrate their respective VoIP 9-1-1 call routing customers to 0-ECRS.

The Commission further directs Aliant Telecom, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream and SaskTel to include provisions within their respective Resale and Sharing tariffs in order to explicitly include in those tariffs the condition that local VoIP service providers are to abide by the directions set out by the Commission in paragraphs 52, 68, 93, 94 and 98 of Emergency service obligations for local VoIP service providers, Telecom Decision CRTC 2005-21, 4 Aprils 2005. [Full article]

 

The growing importance of VoIP services is reflected in the regulatory debate at both the national and international level among OECD countries. There are a range of issues that need to be addressed surrounding the issue of whether traditional regulations should or should not apply to VoIP services. They include classification of the application/service, interconnection, possible market entry barriers, numbering, universal service issues, customer protection, privacy protection, emergency call capabilities, law enforcement issues, and technical safeguards (e.g. solutions for possible low quality of sound). These issues are complicated by the fact that IP can be utilised in all or some parts of traditional and nontraditional communication networks. Delivering a voice service or application can be provided entirely over IP or partly over IP and partly over non-IP. Depending on how it is defined, the term “VoIP” can seep into the term any voice service which runs over IP at any point of their transmission. This might include services that differ in no respect from traditional circuit-switched analogue voice services provided to customers today other than at some point in the middle of the transmission of the service it traverses an IP-based part of the network. Currently, VoIP is, to a large extent, unregulated in a number of OECD countries, but there are several countries which impose regulations similar to PSTN regulations on VoIP. Some countries distinguish between the types of VoIP services in regulations; for example, VoIP services based on PC-to-PC calls are unregulated, whereas calls from a VoIP phone to the PSTN will be regulated. In the last year, a number of governments have started consultation processes on VoIP regulation - OECD, Working Party on Telecommunication and Information Services Policies, VoIP: Developments in the Market.

The European Commission today approved the amended proposal by the German telecoms regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) on the market for wholesale broadband access. Following serious doubts expressed by the Commission on 11 November 2005 with regard to the exclusion of VDSL from the market, BNetzA amended its proposal by including it. Broadband access or "bitstream" allows new entrants to provide their own broadband services (such as high speed internet access, internet telephony or IP television) to end-users by controlling the quality of the products to a high degree. Continues here

The Commission for Communications Regulation ("ComReg") published document 05/11r on 17 February 2005 designating eircom as having Significant Market Power ("SMP") in the market for wholesale broadband access ("WBA") and imposed a number of SMP obligations upon eircom, including obligations in relation to a wholesale price control. In document 05/11r ComReg imposed an interim "retail minus" price control committed, following further consultation, to introduce a permanent retail minus price control.

The objective of a permanent price control is to provide predictability and transparency to the marketplace, while preventing the possibility of eircom of foreclosing the retail market by means of a margin squeeze. In accordance with this objective, ComReg embarked upon a consultation process. This processed with the publication of a consultation document namely, document 05/67. There followed the publication of a response to consultation paper and draft decision notice (document 05/88). The consultation process is now being brought to a conclusion with the publication of this decision notice.

ComReg0601.pdf (1.26 MB)

Federal Network Agency begins assigning frequencies for wireless Internet access. Full article; Press release

FICORA has outlined its views on the application of the Finnish communications market legislation to the services offered by Skype Technologies S.A.

Among the services provided by Skype, the Skype In service (reception of phone calls from a public telephone network) shall be implemented in compliance with the Finnish communications market legislation, if Finnish telephone numbers are used in the provision of the service. The Skype Out service (phone calls to a public telephone network) is under the control of FICORA for those parts only where calls are transmitted in a Finnish telephone network.

In regard to the Skype software enabling calls between Skype users or the Skype Out service provided by Skype to end-users, FICORA does not find itself a competent authority to assess the activities of Skype.

FICORA's opinion on regulation of Skype services in Finland

The Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts released a Government report on the policy and regulatory implications of VOIP services in Australia - News Release; Report.

Report (In Portuguese)

Voice over IP (VoIP), i.e. voice telephony via the Internet and data circuits, is increasing in popularity.

"It is discernible that an enormous innovative potential is available, offering customers not only cost savings but especially new services and the combination of applications. We want to encourage already available developments by giving all market players a clear framework for all doubtful cases", the President of the Federal Network Agency, Matthias Kurth, disclosed in Bonn today. See press release

To ensure that Singapore's scarce number resources are managed in an efficient, objective and transparent manner, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has today announced the results of its fixed-line, Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony1 and mobile numbers auctions conducted earlier this week. To leverage on the convergence of Internet and telecommunications technologies and to take advantage of the wide range of applications supported by such convergence, IDA is also inviting companies to participate in an Electronic Numbering (ENUM) 2 pilot trial to see how numbers can be used innovatively for multiple services in addition to IP Telephony.

The IP Telephony numbers auction and ENUM pilot trial is a follow-up from IDA's launch of the IP Telephony and ENUM policy framework in June this year. The framework is designed to facilitate the entry of companies interested in offering IP Telephony services in Singapore and is expected to bring about reduced costs and more choices in providing telephone services. Part of the framework includes the issuing of licenses and phone numbers for the provision of IP Telephony services. To date 20 entities have either been licenced or have indicated an interest to provide IP Telephony services. [Full article]

The Creation of a New Licence for Services-Based Operators for the Provision of IP Telephony Services — Paving Way for More Service Innovation - The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (22 August 2005) issued a consultation paper to solicit public views on the licensing conditions and licence fee structure for the creation of a new Services-Based Operator (SBO) Licence for the provision of IP Telephony Services. [Full article]

The Commission has issued guidelines on the provision of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in Kenya.

Releasing the guidelines today, CCK Director-General Eng. John Waweru said the guidelines had incorporated stakeholder views gathered during a two-month public consultation process carried out early this year. The Commission also carried out an international benchmark on the situation obtaining in selected countries and in different parts of the world.

"The consultative process together with the international benchmark confirmed that provision of VoIP was desirable and that guidelines needed to be provided for its deployment for the benefit of consumers," he added.

The Director-General said the guidelines would be published in the Kenya Gazette on 12th of this month in keeping with statutory requirements to provide a 60-day period within which stakeholders and the public could make representations to the Commission on the guidelines.  [Full article]

Guidelines

Third Report Compiled by "Study Group on Next Generation IP-based Infrastructure" -- Toward Smooth Transition from PSTN to IP-based Networks

Since December 2004, MIC has been holding an "IP-based Network Working Group" (Group Leader: Prof. GOTO Shigeki, Waseda University), under the "Study Group on Next Generation IP-based Infrastructure" (Chair: Dr. SAITO Tadao, Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo), in order to deliberate upon i) issues to be resolved accompanying introduction of totally IP-based communications infrastructures, and ii) adequate policy measures for addressing thereof.

Recently, the Study Group has compiled and released a report "Toward Smooth Transition from PSTN to IP-based Networks" as its third report. Note: The Study Group's "first report" of June 2004 was compiled as the "Current Status of Backbones and Issues thereof," and its "second report" of July 2005 was compiled as "Information Security Policy 2005."

First Report of "Study Group on Telecommunications Numbers in the IP Era" Released

Order Strikes Balance Between Law Enforcement, Innovation

Responding to a petition from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Commission determined that providers of certain broadband and interconnected voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services must be prepared to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps, the Federal Communications Commission ruled today.

News Release

Italy launches public consultation on the provision of VoIP services [Consultazione pubblica concernente proposte di interventi regolamentari in merito alla fornitura di servizi VOIP (voice over internet protocol)]. Delibera n. 26/05/CIR

Malaysian Co mmunications and Multimedia Commission issues guidelines on telephony service over IP.

The objective of these guidelines is to provide a guided approach for the introduction of the telephony service over IP by licensed service providers under the service number prefix 0154.

Petition to the Governor in Council to Vary Telecom Decision CRTC 2005-28, Regulatory Framework for Voice Communication Services Using Internet Protocol by Aliant Telecom Inc., Bell Canada, Saskatchewan Telecommunications, Télébec, société en commandite, and TELUS Communications Inc. [Follows here...]

Introduction

IP telephony (ranging from early Internet telephony to today’s much more sophisticated VoIP offerings) has been available for many years but without impacting seriously on traditional telecommunications. This was largely due to limitations on the services themselves and also limitations of carrier and access facilities. That situation is now rapidly changing, due mainly to the wider dissemination of broadband services and advances in standardisation. Today, IP technology is making extensive inroads into internal carrier services and backbone networks, it is appearing at an ever-increasing rate in campus situations of many kinds (such as medium-to-large corporations, government facilities and academic installations) and it has commenced its advance on the general consumer marketplace.

One of the “killer” applications for IP technology is undoubtedly voice and it is therefore Voice over IP services (VoIP) that are now beginning to catch widespread public interest. Accordingly, it is unsurprising that the ITU, the European Commission and multiple national telecommunications regulators1 have all already taken steps to acknowledge and/or welcome this technology which has the long-term potential to significantly enhance competition. The general expectation is that VoIP will lead to a combination of lower prices and an increase in the range of services available for consumers in due course.

It is necessary to ensure that the consumer is fully cognizant of the various differences – both positive and negative – that exist between VoIP and “ordinary” telephony. Where the consumer is fully aware of the features he/she is buying in the service being contracted, then satisfaction will be maximised and complaints minimised.

Accordingly, ComReg has prepared this set of non-binding guidelines on how Service Providers should interact with their customers and other SPs. While they are not intended to be exhaustive, these guidelines set out a basic framework whereby allcan benefit, and inconvenience or disappointment to both customers and operators is minimised.

Note: These guidelines are not binding on ComReg and are published without prejudice to its legal position generally and to its rights and duties to regulate the market generally where necessary and are without prejudice to, or in no way operate to alter any obligations, or rights (whether legal or other), of any person.

Information Notice

Background

Under the existing licensing regime, only fixed carriers are allowed to provide real time telephony services, irrespective of the technology they adopt. In fact, some of the fixed carriers have already launched their IP Telephony services. In order to facilitate the further development of the new technology and enable the market to fully embrace the opportunities and benefits brought by the IP Telephony, OFTA took the initiative to clarify the regulatory issues concerned. A public consultation was therefore conducted from October to December 2004 to collect public views on the regulatory framework for the IP Telephony. After studying the 38 submissions received during the consultation period, the TA concluded his views through the publication of the TA Statement today.

• Press release
• Statement

Order Ensures VoIP Customers Have Access to Emergency Services, continues here

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today determined that it would regulate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service only when it is provided and used as local telephone service. Full article

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) authorizes first trial of ENUM: Enum trial site

The Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority (NPT) published a policy paper April 15 2005 on how VoIP services are regulated under Norwegian Law (the Policy Paper). This document summarises NPTs views that are stated in the Policy Paper (in Norwegian text only). Market regulatory issues regarding SMP are not dealt with in the Policy Paper. The NPT will await the outcome of the current European discussions on this topic.

Executive Summary

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced a decision that addresses the requirements for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service providers to offer emergency 9-1-1 service. Full article

The following draft rules for VoIP are hereby issued for public review, consideration and comment. All interested parties are hereby informed that a public hearing on these draft rules shall be held on May 3, 2005 starting from 2 o’clock in the afternoon at the NTC Multi–Purpose Hall, 4th Floor NTC Building, BIR Road, Diliman, Quezon City, Republic of the Philippines. All interested parties are further encouraged to submit their comments or inputs in writing to the Commission (preferably with soft copies thereof) on or before such hearing date.

Memorandum - Draft VoIP Rules

 

 

United States' Federal Telecommunications Commission (FCC) prohibits blocking of VoIP applications: Press release; Decree

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) from Philippines declares its support for VoIP deregulation (22 February 2005); see related NTC's VoIP regulation consultation process: - VoIP Discussion Paper

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) of Ireland issued draft Directions to allow access to the new ’076’ number range for voice over Internet phone services (VoIP)

The European Regulators Group (ERG) for electronic communications networks and services issued a Common Statement on Voice over IP regulatory approaches - Press Release

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) proposes regulatory guidelines for VoIP and International Access/Gateway

The Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) of Spain finalizes consultation on VoIP regulation and proposes VoIP numbering and portability guidelines:

• Press Release (in Spanish)
• Results from VoIP public consultation (in Spanish)

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) of Japan invites comments on draft report concerning Measures for Preserving Important Communications Such as Emergency Messages on IP Networks - Press release

 

 

 

 

Explanatory Memorandum on the Policy Framework for IP Telephony and Electronic Numbering in Singapore and more, see

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has issued its Public Notice 2004-2 (French) on the regulatory framework for voice communication services using Internet Protocol (IP), providing the Commission’s preliminary views on the issue.

Among its preliminary views is that voice communication services using IP which utilize telephone numbers based on the North American Numbering Plan and provide universal access to and/or from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) (referred to in this public notice as "VoIP" services) have functional characteristics that are the same as circuit-switched voice telecommunications services. In addition, its existing regulatory framework should apply to VoIP services, including its determinations related to forbearance.

CRTC considers, on a preliminary basis, that to the extent that VoIP services provide subscribers with access to and/or from the PSTN along with the ability to make and/or receive calls that originate and terminate within the geographic boundaries of a local calling area as defined in the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers' (ILECs) tariffs, they should be treated for regulatory purposes as local exchange services, and be subject to the regulatory framework governing local competition.

The Commission also expresses preliminary views on the following three matters:

1. the applicability of existing tariffs, and requirements to file tariffs;
2. the provision of 911 and enhanced 911 service, message relay service and privacy safeguards; and
3. the applicability of the national contribution collection mechanism.

Caroline Simard
GREX Advisor

On 10 March 2004, the United States Federal Communication Commission (FCC) released a comprehensive Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking to address the issue of the proper regulatory regime for services and applications that rely on Internet-based platforms.

The Commission highlights the revolutionary changes that IP-enabled services and applications are having on the U.S. communications landscape and stresses the need to craft a regulatory framework that provides regulatory certainty, fosters the growth of the sector, and does not hinder the deployment of broadband infrastructure.

The Rulemaking proceeding underlines the difference between IP-based services and traditional telecommunications services and networks, and calls for comments to "arrive at sound legal and policy conclusions regarding whether and how to differentiate between IP-enabled services and voice legacy services, and how to differentiate among IP-enabled services themselves."

The proposed rules reaffirm the FCC’s long-established policy of light-touch regulation of the Internet and draws attention to the importance of embracing a minimal regulatory approach to IPenabled services. However, according to the Commission, "fencing off IP platforms from economic regulation, would not put them beyond the reach of regulations". The Notice emphasizes the importance of relying "on discrete regulatory requirements, only when these requirements are necessary to fulfill important policy objectives". In this context, the Notice highlights that public safety needs, basic and enhanced 911 services, access by the disabled, lawfully authorized electronic surveillance and consumer privacy concerns would have to be addressed in the proposed framework, as communications migrate to an IP-enabled environment.

In addition, the Notice raises numerous questions about the economic regulation that traditionally applied to legacy telecommunications services and seeks comments on whether there is "a compelling rationale for extending aspects of this regulation to providers of IP-based services". In this connection, the Commission seeks comments on whether providers of IP-enabled services sending traffic to the PSTN should be subject to termination access charges for using the switching facilities of the local exchange carriers.

The Commission also seeks comments on the impact of the new regulatory classification on the current U.S. Universal Service policy and support mechanisms in general, and on rural access in particular. It also raises the question whether IP-enabled service providers (both facilities-based and non facilities-based) should make contributions to the Universal Service Fund. Finally, the Commission seeks comments on the impact of any decisions reached as a result of the inquiry on other areas like international settlements, numbering, foreign policy and trade.

The Notice also seeks comments on IP-enabled services provided over wireless systems and cable platforms, without laying down specific proposed rules in those areas.

The NPRM constitutes the launching step of a Rulemaking proceeding that promises to be extensive, complicated and controversial. According to FCC Chairman Powell, it is "perhaps the most important item in communications history".

Boutheina Guermazi
G-REX Advisor
FCC, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Matter of IP-Enabled Services.
WC Docket No 04-36, adopted on February 12, 2004, Released on March 10, 2004.

Regulators map ‘Universal Access’ route to Information and Communication Technology

Telecommunication regulators from around the world delivered a powerful message to world leaders convening in Geneva for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The regulators identified a series of steps nations can take to bridge the digital divide. They called upon countries to open their information and communications technology (ICT) sectors to greater competition. They further identified the kinds of regulations and practices needed to promote universal access to ICT services. Full article

• 4th Global Symposium for Regulators
• Best practice guidelines

In its recent decision of November 10, 2003, the Cabinet of Bangladesh gave the private sector the permission to offer Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services. The approval of the commercial use of VOIP is a long awaited decision following two years of disagreement between the Government, the regulator and the ISPs. The proposal was introduced by the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) as part of its sector reform and liberalization efforts of the telecom sector. The government expressed an initial reluctance to legalize the service fearing revenue loss to the state run telephone company, Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board (BTTB). This concern was addressed by giving the incumbent state-run operator the opportunity to be the first operator to start the service and by obliging the new licensees to generate and terminate calls using the (BTTB) international gateway.

The BTRC is entrusted with the task of issuing the licenses for the service as well as overseeing the operation of the system. The decision has been acclaimed as a landmark decision with far-reaching implications for a country with low teledensity. It promises cheaper international rates for consumers and a possible boost for ICT related services. The decision can also lead to improved access by helping the call center business to grow.

Boutheina Guermazi
G-REX Advisor
Adapted from: “Bangladesh Dials up Internet Phone Calls” BBC News, UK edition Monday, 10 November 2003, 22:15 GMT