Jonathan Solomon

Tariffing in the new IP/ATM environment

Public telecommunication operators chose ATM as their solution for BISDN in 1989--that same year that the Internet took off. Progress has been hesitant and slow; while questions of network architecture and standards have remained unresolved, the fundamental issue holding back the roll out of ATM and BISDN is the reluctance of the PTOs to alter their outmoded tariff structures. A new pricing model is therefore necessary for managing the transition to the future ATM/IP broadband environment.

Separating infrastructure and service provision: The broadband imperative

The advent of broadband transmission and cheap processing power alters the economics of network provision radically. Electronic highways become practicable, but the existing organization of PTOs and existing regulatory frameworks based on the economics of narrowband network provision are obstacles to the optimal introduction and exploitation of superabundant transmission capacity. The separation of network provision from service provision is perhaps a precondition for both customers and service providers to maximize benefits in a broadband environment. This Comment examines some of the transitional issues involved - structural and unstructural separation - and suggests they may dominate the regulatory agenda for the 21st century.

The interconnection imperative: E pluribus unum

Abstract The interconnection of telecommunication networks will be the subject of major policy debate and decision in the 1990s. This article reviews and comments upon the differing approaches to interconnection that are evolving in certain countries which have introduced basic (or primary) competition in infrastructure and voice. It suggests new ways by which governments, regulators and operators might view and resolve some of the issues of principle surrounding interconnection and explores whether the interconnection process is capable of being streamlined by the application of universally acceptable principles.

The future role of international telecommunications institutions

The telecommunications world is being swept by technological and national regulatory changes. The international telecommunication institutions -- the ITU, INTELSAT and CEPT -- were founded in times when technological trends were more stable and national regulation was more homogeneous. How will they cope with these new changes? In an era of growing heterogeneity, the ITU may need to look increasingly beynd itself to maintain its centrality. Meanwhile, INTELSAT faces challenges from new market entrants and a more flexible approach to new technological and commercial imperatives in satellite and cable services. The EEC is awakening to the need for institutional change within Europe and this is already having an impact on CEPT. It is concluded that to survive and to maintain relevance the existing international institutions will need to initiate changes or face a loss of authority to other institutions such as OECD and EEC.

Structural separation or market restructuring

The provision of local access in telecommunications looks likely to remain, predominantly, in the hands of the traditional vertically-integrated PTOs. The failure of governments to mandate structural separation, a vital pre-condition for the full flow through of Information Era Benefits, requires increasingly artificial modes of new entrant assistance, such as those in the UK, to offset lack of scale and scope in the face of vertically-integrated dominance. There are structural solutions available to unlock the vital local access network. Where the regulator fails to act, the market will act. Between now and 2000 the telecommunications market will be swept by two centripetal forces: (i) the Internet model where de facto structural separation exists and (ii) a host of merges to maintain maximum customer control in the absence of structural separation.

The missing link: a political hot potato

The Maitland Commissions report, The Missing Link, contains a cascade of recommendations - political, financial, institutional and operational. But, by setting a timetable for implementation of its recommendations before the next ITU Plenipotentiary the Commission has ensured that The Missing Link will be a political hot potato for the rest of the decade.

The ITU in a time of change

The advance of information technology and the growth of easily accessible infostructures are creating a new series of borderless interconnections between global business networks run by wealth-creating enterprises and community networks run by groups of like-minded individuals. In an increasingly borderless global village the ITU is still border bound, reflecting the era of nation states and administering regimes which were based on strict respect for national sovereignty. Over the next decade the relevance of the ITU will be increasingly dependent on the quality of the reciprocal relationships it can build both with the full range of administrative regulators and with business operators creating the new communications environment of the 21st century.

Should the UK play the ITU political game

One of the consequences of the 1989 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference was the loss of the UKs seat on the Administrative Council. This article looks at the reasons why this occurred and suggests that, if it wishes to win back its seat, the UK will have to change the way it conducts its overseas telecommunications policy.

The politics of relevance and the ITU

Ruben Naslund has done the telecommunications community a service by stimulating debate on the issues facing the ITU in the wake of the Nairobi Plenipotentiary Conference. The Nairobi Conference was important for both what was said and resolved and what was unsaid and unresolved. When sovereign nations meet for six weeks there is an interplay of emotions and perceptions which imperceptibly mould policy formulation well after the event. A Plenipotentiary Conference is a political event, however much the engineers, technicians and PTT administrators of the telecommunications community prefer or pretend that is not. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the outstanding ITU issues in light of certain basic facts which structure the interests of member countries.