By the time this appears in print CMA’s annual conference and Ofcom’s annual plan will be done and dusted.   The outcomes of both events will be on the web and CMA members will be looking forward to our 3^rd workshop with Ofcom on BT’s 21CN. Meanwhile the UK’s position on European telecoms regulation (apparently we prefer DIY) will be tested across a number of issues where the ‘thought leadership’ is being contested. 

One tricky area is call revenue sharing.   Some businesses (and their suppliers) have for years been happy to divvy up the 0845 and 0870 spoils and maybe use the revenue to subsidise support services.  There is also a long history of consumer concern.   C&W was recently taken to task and in France the government, once again taking a lead on behalf of consumers, has lost patience with the Telcos and is introducing a Bill to forbid operators to charge people phoning on their hotlines during the time they are waiting for someone to answer. 

Similarly the consumer (and business) interest in forcing lower mobile roaming charges is being led by Brussels.  The official UK position is that market forces will eventually bring down retail prices.   Is the lobbying by the operators a tactic to hang on to excessive profits for as long as possible?   At least we should welcome Hutchinson 3’s recent intent to lower roaming charges within its own 3G network.  Do travellers imagine they now have a choice of competitive offers or do we all just pay the tax and bemoan the bill?  Maybe it’s time our own parliament took an interest. 

Competition in the mobile roaming market is at least offered by those operating multi-user gateways – considered by the consumer’s friend Ofcom as illegal.   Fortunately the European Court is not so sure.  This affair has dragged on for over two years, and now Ofcom is appealing against the latest court ruling.  So often it seems that when the game is nearly up the best tactic that the telecoms industry’s big battalions can muster is to go into extra time. 

Extra time is most definitely not on the side of BT and it’s good to see rapid progress with 21CN.  Business customers are no longer entirely in the dark about what it will mean – but they are still in a deep shade.  Our next workshop with Ofcom with explore enterprise concerns about service continuity, billing during the migration, CPE compatibility, legacy infrastructure, timetables and what this all means for multi-national enterprises. 

Whether 21CN will help resolve the Broadband Access challenge is still a moot point.  Yes, we know that 98.8% of the population live in areas where the exchange has been broadband-enabled.  But the number of ‘unserved’ is far more than you would imagine – largely on account of line lengths and quality.  ADSL2+ will reach only 50% of the population in 5 year’s time – too little too late for international businesses with competitive agendas…and  probably not much fun either for those who want to champion IPTV, hosted IP Centrex or the rich range of Web2.0 services that supposedly will one day lighten all our lives.    

Fibre Nation or Hibernation?   Maybe you’d like extra time to think about that.   Here’s to next year’s Annual Plan.

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First published in Comms Business, March 2007