Contents

1. Agenda

2. List of attendees

3. Minutes

• Introduction from Chair, Peter Walker, Oftel.
• FAQs by ISPs about the new regulatory framework - Lucy Rhodes
• Market reviews and narrowband Internet access - Justin Moore, Internet project manager at Oftel
• Determination of User’s QoS criteria for Internet Access in Europe - Antony Oodan, ETSI

Introduction from Chair, Peter Walker, Oftel.

Click here for slides

Peter introduced the day's topic of discussion - ISPs and the new regulatory framework .

Peter welcomed attendees to the Forum and the session's external speaker, Antony Oodan from ETSI.

Before continuing with the day's advertised agenda, Peter made the following announcements:

CPS and FRIACO

Peter said that Oftel would like to clarify the interaction between CPS and FRIACO/Surftime. Oftel isaware that some ISPs may be advising that these services are not compatible.

FRIACO and Surftime are excluded from CPS and therefore using CPS should have no impact on consumer's access to FRIACO and Surftime based service

Functional Internet Access

Oftel is consulting on guidelines for Functional Internet Access. The obligation to provide Functional Internet Access will fall upon designated communication providers only. Oftel is proposing that a minimum speed of 28.8 kbit/s is reasonable (although it is not mandating it).

The draft guidelines also deal with the practice of line-sharing. Comments on the guidelines are welcome - there is a deadline of 2 May 2003. Go to
·www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/eu_directives/2003/uso0303.htm

Intelligent Network (IN) Charge

On 4 April 2003 Oftel published a consultation document on the Intelligent Network (IN) Charge for DLE and ST FRIACO -
http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/internet/2003/friaco0403.htm. The deadline for comments is 7 May 2003.

Housekeeping

Peter stated that the meeting would be held under Chatham House rules. A note of the meeting would be available on the web site.

Attendees were asked to think about topics for future Forum events. Suggestions should be e-mailed to lucy.rhodes@oftel.gov.uk

FAQs by ISPs about the new regulatory framework - Lucy Rhodes, Internet and broadband policy adviser at Oftel

Click here for slides

Lucy gave some background information about the new regulations and what this means in general terms for ISPs, before going through some of the more specific things contained in the new framework, as set out in the FAQs for ISPs published by Oftel.

Click here for FAQs

Lucy explained that the FAQs were designed to be as helpful and informative as possible but should be received with the understanding that the examples given referred to typical cases, not all instances.

In April 2002 the European Commission published a new package of directives that will replace those under which telecommunications are currently regulated. The Directives are technology neutral and will regulate the provision of all publicly available electronic communications networks and services. The UK must bring these changes into force on 25 July 2003.

In May 2002, the Government published the first draft of the Communications Bill. The Bill will implement the Directives, among other things - i.e. it will also set the regulatory structure for all commuunications services e.g. independent radio and TV and the regulation of media ownership and control. The provisions of the Bill transfer powers from the 5 organisations that currently regulate communications services to Ofcom www.ofcom.org.uk.

One of the biggest changes to the current arrangements is the end of the licensing regime, which will be replaced by a new general authorisation scheme. There will be no requirement to apply for a general authorisation, only to comply will applicable conditions.

Currently, most ISPs operate under the Telecommunications Services Licence (TSL) - although ISPs who are interconnecting can apply for schedule 2 status which entitles them to interconnection from BT and requires negotiation with others. Under the new framework, all licence conditions will be replaced by a combination of specific conditions (applicable to individual providers) and general conditions, applicable to all communications providers, or those of a certain class.

In the past, providers have fallen into distinct categories. Under the new framework, there are just two fundamental types - providers of electronic communications networks and providers of electronic communications services.

Peter Walker presented a slide to the Forum which illustrated the types of providers that fall within these categories. Click here for slide.

The new framework does not extend to the provision of content services. The regulations are technology neutral and the publication of the FAQs in no way implies that ISPs will be treated any differently. However, given the overall aim of proportionate regulation and the fact that ISPs are non dominant players in a broadly competitive market, ISPs are likley to be subject to lighter conditions all round.

Lucy ran through 8 key questions, the answers to which are included in the published FAQs.

Questions

If a provider's network is based overseas but it is selling services to customers based in the UK, is the provider caught by the new regulations?

If a provider is selling services in the EU then it is caught by the new regulations, even if its network is based outside this area.

Does 'relevant turnover' only relate to revenues from customers in the UK?

Yes.

If an ISP has a very small amount of network (e.g. literally just a VPN) would the regulations applicable to providers of an ECN apply to the ISP as a whole rather than just in relation to those activities?

Yes. However the general conditions rarely distinguish between service and network providers.

Would an e-mail service and an e-mail service provider be considered as content (or 'information society') services under the new framework?

The test is whether the service is wholly or mainly a conveyance service. E-mail is considered to be mainly about moving text and attachments from A to B and therefore is considered to be an Electronic Communications Service. Indeed, Recital 10 of the Framework Directive specifically states "Voice Telephony and electronic mail conveyance services are covered by this Directive."

Market reviews and narrowband Internet access - Justin Moore, Internet project manager at Oftel

Click here for slides

Justin presented Oftel's market review proposals in three key areas of relevance to narrowband Internet access: NTS, FRIACO and wholesale unmetered narrowband Internet termination.

He explained that although the narrowband Internet termination market was not on the European Commission's list of markets that should be reviewed, Oftel's previous review had raised competition concerns about unmetered access, and Oftel had decided it was necessary to review the market.

Questions

Does taking away the regulations currently in place in the termination market mean that, in future, BT will be able to offer tailored discounts to e.g. BT Openworld?

Yes. However regulations will still be in place in the wholesale call origination market, for example accounting separation. This means that Oftel could still investigate whether BT has abused its dominant position in call origination by leveraging market power into termination. This might also be handled as an investigation under the Competition Act, e.g. a margin squeeze, or as a breach of the conditions imposed on it in the call origination market.

Determination of User’s QoS criteria for Internet Access in Europe - Antony Oodan, ETSI

Click here for slides

Antony gave a bit of background information about the ETSI project which is looking at developing a list of information ISPs could (either required or voluntarily) publish in order to provide quality of service information to consumers.

Antony provided handouts which listed the criteria he had so far identified.

Click here for handout.

Antony explained that he had visited ISPs, NRAs and industry groups in various European countries to gain opinion and input to the project. He had gained a varied response - some countries are particularly keen on the idea of published quality of service information and others less so.

Antony asked the Forum whether there were any ISPs that would want to take part in helping set the criteria which will be presented to the European Commission later this year.

ISPs and consumers who would like to be involved should contact Antony at OODANTQC@compuserve.com

Questions and comments

Who would carry out the reports? The ISP or a third party?

In Denmark, there is a piece of software that users can download onto their PCs which automatically logs information at the end of the month about the users' experience. This method is not foolproof and is being enhanced.

A third party system would be to expensive.

Other information should be added to the list - e.g. outages relating to different parts of the service not just the whole service, latency of e-mail, Usenet, time-outs etc...

Such a scheme would never be completely free of cost for the ISP - e.g. customers would call their ISP's helpline with queries about the software.

Much of this information is already collected by ISPs for their own use.

Would the monthly report be a three page summary or a single number?

Three page.