Contents

    Supporting Information

    1.   Introduction & Overview

    2.  Presentations

    3.  Workshop Discussions

    4.  Group Feedback

    5.   Next Steps

Supporting Information

Meeting Agenda

Cabinet Office Report - e-commerce@its.best.uk

1.  Introduction & Overview

Peter Walker introduced himself as the Chairman and explained that this workshop had been arranged to address recommendation 7.1 of the Cabinet Office report e-commerce@ its.best.uk.

Recommendation 7.1: Oftel and the Office of Fair Trading should carry out a review by end March 2000 to identify any emerging barriers to competition in electronic markets and make recommendations for preventing any such barriers becoming serious problems.

Peter Walker explained that this report was produced by the Performance & Innovation Unit (PIU) to assist in achieving the government’s objective which is to ensure that Britain is the best place to do e-commerce by 2002.

This workshop began with presentations from government and industry, the group then separated into several sub groups to discuss barriers to e-commerce.  These sub groups then presented their findings to the full group for discussion.

2.  Presentations

2.1 Joint Oftel and OFT Study on E-commerce - Click here to download the presentation(pdf) (111kb)

Marie Clarke (OFT), Ilsa Godlovitch (Oftel), Barbara Powell (OFT), Dave Simpson (Oftel).

Barbara Powell spoke about the objectives and scope of the study and introduced questions concerning competition policy in fast moving markets and consultation on the structure of the market.

Dave Simpson talked about the model of dial-up access via a PC and discussed how this model may be different from new services via TV and Mobile phones.

Marie Clarke looked at four key themes in considering how e-commerce will develop; Convergence, Vertical integration and alliances, Expansion and consolidation, and Globalisation. Competition and regulatory issues and wider policy issues. Convergence and other market definition issues. Where and what are the potential competition issues?

Ilsa Godlovitch raised the points for debate to lead the group discussions following the presentations from industry.

2.2 Towards a New Network Architecture, Gary Baker (Alcatel) - Click here to download the presentation(pdf) (1440kb)

2.3 ISPs Portals and Content, Simon Hampton (AOL) - Click here to download the presentation(pdf) (228kb)

The Transatlantic Digital Divide, costs of access and the change to unmetered Internet access and return to the subscription model. Criticism of the situation of Incumbent ownership of both networks and service provider which is prevalent around Europe. Discussion of various access technologies becoming more important.

Advertising and the 'Quality of Member' idea where demographics of customer is important to the advertiser and thus portal operator. Functionality of the portal will be enhanced with unified messaging with fixed/mobile Internet convergence.

Whilst there is competition in the portal market it is easy to create and market a web-site. Distribution media - narrowband/broadband and mobile/fixed. In cable TV incumbents retain control of networks in many countries across Europe. Mobile issues include SIM-locks and GPRS linking customer to index homepage.

EU Review and the regulation of Oligopolies, market triggers and the need to address the gap between the Significant Market Power Trigger and the Market Dominance Trigger.

2.4 Enabling M-commerce, Patrick Waters (Vodafone) - Click here to download the presentation(pdf) (24kb)

The needs of the customer and of the merchant for m-commerce to be a success. Discussed current GSM technology including SIM cards, WAP and credit/debit payment systems that can be adjusted to provide payment for m-commerce. Major issue of security which needs to be addressed as many options could cause barrier due to adoption of different proprietary and incompatible solutions to security by different networks, vendors and handset manufacturers. Secure Public Key Infrastructure put forward, a non-proprietary solution. There are no barriers for content or applications and overwhelming opportunities in m-commerce. Introduced a 'Framework for Success'.

3.  Workshop Discussions

The audience and speakers split into three groups to discuss points raised on the last page of the Oftel/OFT presentation, namely:

• Have we identified correctly the way the market is moving?
• Have we identified correctly areas where potential competition issues may emerge?
• What’s missing?
• Which are likely to be more or less important?
• Are there any areas in your view that Oftel or OFT should be investigating proactively?

The findings of the three groups was then summarised and presented to the entire group for consideration and comment.

4.  Group Feedback

Points of discussion were in accordance with expectations. Barriers were perceived to be;

• No competition between SPs in high bandwidth access, mobile, and STB access
• DSL and other high bandwidth access provision technologies tied to SP being access provider
• Strong need for ‘Open’ access for Internet to model PSTN access model.
• Internet has only succeeded by being ‘Open’ and will serve everybody if it remains so.
• Still room for Portals such as AOL (etc) to be top dog
• Access on mobile phones seemed to be highest on peoples agenda
• GPRS possible to tie consumers in to Network operators portal – CSD allows access to any site
• Competition needed in access media, SPs, and Content
• Internet possibly best served by competition in Access at a minimum
• Different Access methods (mobile, fixed, STB (etc)) deemed to be substitutable not complimentary
• Everybody in agreement about ‘Openness’

5.  Next Steps

Oftel and OFT to publish consultation document early in March.

There will be two weeks allowed for comments.

A final report will be submitted to the office of the E-envoy at the end of April.

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