INTUG

An Update on Global Communications Issues

Connecting the Fiber World

The challenge of reaching the world’s population with high speed broadband continues to occupy governments, regulators and operators as economies emerge from recession. Wireless solutions may fill some of the gaps, but there is still a strong belief that effective connectivity must come via fiber. Limited infrastructure competition may continue in urban locations, but most competition is likely to come in services, applications and content.

There must be careful balancing of a desire for open access with protection of intellectual property rights and debates over how to regulate illicit file sharing. This also affects how data protection and privacy can be maintained for both corporate and personal users.

Internet Governance

The Internet is at the heart of telecommunications, and organizations like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) are now as important to users as the ITU, CEPT, WARC were in the past. INTUG is considering how best to engage with these organizations whilst maintaining its involvement in ITU, OECD, APECTEL, CTO, the European Commission and other bodies.

Mobile gets faster and pressure on Termination Rates grows

If wireless is to provide a partial solution to high speed broadband, the adoption of 4G and LTE will be needed to generate anything approaching adequate bandwidths. There are signs that this is going to become a reality in the near future in some countries, notably Sweden, where TeliaSonera were granting some 900MHz spectrum which they have begun to use for fixed/mobile migration in rural areas as a forerunner to 4G and LTE.

Following the UK Terminatetherate initiative, pressure to reduce mobile termination rates has gone global, with an aptly named New Zealand version called Droptheratemate being used to generate an online petition. This has put the topic firmly on the NZ radar.

Africa partly cut off by cable outage

The reliance of users of telecommunications on back up was illustrated by recent damage to the main submarine fiber optic cable, which connects West and South Africa to Europe. INTUG member Paul Budde said this caused severe disruptions of telephone and Internet traffic, because it was the only cable serving the African West Coast. Affected countries had to rely on satellite back-up links, which don’t provide the same capacity and quality. South Africa did have an alternative cable route, and was better placed.

Asia accelerates even faster

In many Asian countries, the regulatory environment is built around creating incentives to invest in fiber. It’s not so much a free market approach, or ROI driven, but rather a more proactive approach. The e-Japan initiative is a case in point. To boost performance, the Japanese government has mandated a switch from BPON to Gigabit Ethernet PON (GE-PON) architecture. IP Ethernet-based architectures are very cost effective versus the BPON approach. Also, Ethernet can support the quality-of-service mechanisms they need to support now, whereas in the early 2000s, it probably couldn’t. In Asia, for example in places like China, the network is relatively new, and it is all IP based.

Europe poised for key decisions

Recent months in the Northern Hemisphere have provided a relatively quiet period, with many governments in summer recess. The newly elected European Parliament is sorting out its allocation of responsibilities, which will be followed in the Autumn by announcement of the new Commissioners – appointments in key ICT posts are eagerly awaited by INTUG.

The outcome of the consultation on the Framework Review, the Next Generation Access recommendation, and the compromise on a remedy for illicit file sharing, are imminent.

Latin American prospects good

INTUG Member Paul Budde reports encouraging signs of growth in the Latin American market, with opportunities for new entrants, despite consolidation in the major countries. Chile is likely to have their first MVNO in operation later this year. Broadband may need governmental and regulatory efforts, e.g. e-health, e-education, e-government, and social services. Latin America has welcomed 3G mobile services beyond all expectations. Mobile broadband has met with huge success, filling a need unmet by fixed infrastructure. Mobile broadband growth in Brazil has been truly spectacular. From less than 2,000 3G subscriptions (including both mobile phones and modems) in June 2008, by March 2009 there were 1.23 million WCDMA phones plus 3.13 million modems for mobile broadband.

APECTEL-40, September 24-30

The next meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Telecommunications and Information Working Group will be held in Mexico City. INTUG will be represented there by Ernie Newman, head of New Zealand member TUANZ.

ITU Telecom World, Geneva, October 5-9

Preparations by the ITU for this “Telecom Fest” are now at an advanced stage. The event offers a good measure of the health and growth of the global telecommunications industry. It will not be in the same style as some of the “Telecom Olympics” events of old, but it still remains an important milestone in the development of the telecom industry, and will offer an insight into the narrowing gap between the leading countries and the fast followers. This may, for example, reveal the extent to which some parts of the world have bypassed fixed communications, relying entirely on wireless for connectivity. It could also highlight the presence or absence of regional co-operation on developments and regulation.

New INTUG Chair nominated

Following the tragic death of INTUG’s previous Chairman, Sergio Antocicco from Italian member ANUIT, the INTUG Board nominated Rosemary Sinclair, from the Australian Group ATUG, as the new Chairperson. She will be formally elected at the next INTUG meeting in Paris. Nominations are also being sought for two vacancies on the Board.

INTUG Meeting, Paris, December 9-10

The second of INTUG’s 2009 meetings will take place in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris.

It will feature presentations and discussion on two topics of growing interest and relevance to telecommunications users – Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC) and Cloud Computing. The two are linked since one needs the support of the other, and the meeting will include presentations of research undertaken on these topics, including one by the OECD. There will also specific presentations on the French market and regulations.

This newsletter was coordinated by Nick White, Executive Vice President, INTUG

This entry was posted on 26 August 2009 at 9:00 AM and is filed under International Insights, INTUG. Tagged: INTUG newsletter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are closed.