This time last year we made three promises for the CMA - and we’ve delivered on all three.  It’s been fun exposing excessive hype.   We’ve certainly been on an innovative journey.  And getting the business customers’ voice to be heard by Ofcom above the clamour of establishment pleading has delivered results and shown how much more can be achieved with a little extra push.

Fortunately we’ve not been campaigning on our own.  The mighty mobile roaming rip-off battle that looked doomed to failure ended with a surprise score draw thanks to brilliant attacking footwork by the European Commission led by their captain Ms Reding .  Such has been the speed of transition towards mobile enterprise that it’s high time folks stopped imagining that roaming is some kind of premium luxury.   The settlement on reduced pan-European roaming charges is supposed to last awhile but with a bit more energy by business consumers we might be able to get a rematch and chase down a proper result – especially now that the opposition’s supporters club at the old DTI is under new management.

And applause please for the Broadband Stakeholders Group.  Their ‘Pipe Dreams?’ report has not only avoided being kicked into touch but has made many folks question why Ofcom’s recent consultation on future broadband comes across as vision-free.

But what really matters to channel enterprises is how to make the most of the ‘here and now’.  It’s been a very enterprising year.  VoIP has got a whole lot better – unless your customer’s  business is based in a rural area with patchy broadband performance.  Hosted applications services have come on in leaps and bounds – providing your customers have fast upload speeds, or at least something a bit less asymmetric than standard ADSL.

Hot tip on network performance for the new year is that ISP’s and applications providers should take a close look at ‘assured services’.  Enough is now known about jitter, delay and packet loss over DSL networks that innovators like Predictable Network Solutions can now deliver consistent quality  performance for specific applications regardless of the headline speeds at either end.   It took variable speed limits on the M25 to stop drivers rushing from jam to jam.  By predicting and smoothing IP traffic flow it turns out that quite a lot more performance can be squeezed out of last generation networks – which is just as well given that the next generation is still in labour.

The new year promises even more change.  The price of copper is now so high that replacing it with fibre could earn a hefty kickback.   At the same time other enterprising souls are busy threading fibre through the sewers to avoid the pain of digging up roads or sharing ducts – though I somehow doubt that anyone will advertise it as ‘broadband to the bog’.   

And, in 2008, how many new channel specialists will enter the ‘connected health’ market dealing in the vast range of body-worn monitors that are now expected to boost preventative health care, keep us out of hospital and reduce burdens on the NHS. 

The CMA started 2007 fiercely independent with a 49-year tradition of supporting business network managers.  We start our 50^th year with the same commitment to supporting the business of business networking but, as a sign of our convergent times, we are now under the umbrella of the BCS and busy building bridges between Comms and that other great technology tribe who did not always see the need to include the ‘C’ in ICT.

And for your humble correspondent it’s also been a great year.  It’s been fun writing this CMA column every month but it’s time to hand over the baton.  I’ll be taking a break - and taking time out to visit innovative telecoms developments in far-flung places.   I may be tempted to report back – but meanwhile…. best wishes for a prosperous, enterprising and well-connected new year.

This editorial was first published in Comms Business magazine January 2008.