April 1999

A small group of prospective UK CPS operators have suggested that since BT has to modify every switch in its network individually to introduce CPS functionality into its networks, CPS should be made available first from major UK cities by 1.1.2000 and rolled out progressively elsewhere thereafter. DGXIII has been informed directly of the views of UK consumer groups and the majority view of UK CPS operators that, in order to avoid customer confusion and to facilitate effective marketing, CPS should not be rolled out gradually but should be introduced nationwide at the same time. However, Oftel is conscious that the grounds on which a deferment should be granted are expected to be technical and if geographic phasing were technically possible, there would be a good case for requiring CPS availability on a phased basis, leaving it up to CPS operators to decide how and when they would market their services. Oftel has investigated the scope for geographically phased roll-out with BT, examining developments on the critical path to see if the CPS service will be technically possible in some areas before it is available in others.

The critical path of activities is switch software build, switch build network integration facility testing at BT Martlesham, switch build piloting, the industry service preparation pilot and the industry service delivery pilot (these terms are explained below). Other activities such as the national roll-out of switch build and updating BT’s computing systems, will be undertaken in parallel. It has been proposed that CPS service delivery should be offered as switch build is completed in individual switches or areas, but since switch build is not on the critical path for service delivery, the CPS service will not become available as switch build is completed and thus switch build will not bring forward service availability in any individual area. The CPS service cannot be offered to interconnecting CPS operators until completion of activities 6 and 7, detailed below.

Activity 1 - Switch Software Builds.
The time prescribed for this activity has been set by the two suppliers GPT and ETL respectively. The software is scheduled to be made available to BT on 11 February 2000.

Activity 2 Switch Build Network Integration Facility Test at BT Martlesham.
These are prescribed tests on a dummy switch to ensure that the software has the required functionality. The procedures and timescales are standard ones for any switch upgrade and take six weeks. This activity ends on 23^rd March 2000.

Activity 3 Switch Build Pilot.
Two upgraded switches are used in a live network environment ensuring that traffic and operational activities function correctly. Again this is a standard activity for software upgrade and ends on the 14^th June 2000.

Activities 1, 2 and 3 are carried out in sequence and must be complete before Activity 4 can commence.

Activity 4 - National Rollout of the Switch Build.
This takes place over an eight week period independently of other activities. This is undertaken by BT’s suppliers and their contractors. The software will be progressively rolled out over the period, to be complete on 8 August 2000. This also is standard practice for software rollouts. This activity is not on the critical path. Installation of the software alone will not make a CPS service available.

Activity 5 BT Computing Systems Updated.
There are numerous system developments that are included under the broad heading of Operational Support Systems (OSS). These are being carefully co-ordinated. There will be a series of rollouts that run in parallel to Activity 4, which are scheduled to be complete on 8 August 2000. This activity is not on the critical path.

Activity 6 Industry Service Preparation Pilot.
This activity is dependent on Activity 3 being complete and is scheduled to start on 14^th June 2000. As agreed within the CPS Industry Process Group this will be a Pilot phase to ensure switch/interconnect system set up is functioning. This activity also runs in parallel to activities 4 and 5.

Activity 7 Industry Service Delivery Pilot.
Again as agreed within the CPS Industry Process Group there will be a pilot to ensure that the interaction with customers, network and operation including billing will function satisfactorily.

Oftel has sought assurances from BT that the timescales set out above are as tight as reasonably possible – this means that precise dates may change as the implementation process develops. Further, only outline discussions have taken place within the CPS Industry Process Group on Activities 6 and 7 and so the activities and timescales described below follow general practice. These final two activities are sequential, are on the critical path and the results of Activity 6 may need to be discussed in the Industry Group prior to Activity 7 proceeding

The industry commercial group, including BT, Kingston and Oftel will decide who should participate in the industry service delivery trial. Although no decisions have yet been taken, to date three companies have been proposed - Scottish Telecom, Energis and COLT. Oftel will apply its usual rules on piloting and trials to ensure that competition is not distorted. If the pilot proceeds adequately then it is anticipated that BT would be able to load further operator's individual requirements on to the switches from 8^th December 2000. The timescales for loading further operators under the current industry process group guidelines would be between 6 and 10 weeks depending on the nature and size of the requirement of each operator. Full national activation would take approximately 10 weeks. To date there has been only very basic discussion on this aspect in the Industry Group. The consequences of large volumes of operators all requesting network activation at this time also needs to be considered.

All software and OSS roll out activities should be complete by 8^th August 2000. But until this point in time there would be no opportunity to test interaction between BT and other operators networks or pilot with customers. The following three months then concentrate on a live pilot with operators and their customers. By way of comparison, inter-operator and customer piloting for geographic number portability took 3 months, from June to September 1996.

Oftel would stress that the importance of testing and piloting over the last few months of 2000 has been agreed in outline to date, within the CPS Industry Process Group. In other words, CPS operators who participate in the group in discussions with BT recognise that the CPS service should not be launched without satisfactory conclusion of the piloting stage of the process, according to accepted best practice. The proposal to launch CPS on a switch by switch basis as software is installed would cut short or eliminate altogether this stage of the implementation process. Failure to carry this out could lead to orders being incorrectly processed and calls failing. The point is that satisfactory piloting must be completed for the national network before CPS can be launched as a retail service – whilst it is too early to predict the pattern of piloting, the likelihood is that testing cannot be confined to discrete regions and the national network as a whole will be undergoing this final stage as a single process.

In summary, established processes for introducing a national systems software upgrade preclude the possibility of geographic phasing in the form of service availability from individual switches as the necessary software is installed. This is because, as set out above, the availability of the software is not on the critical path for offering the service to customers. Rather, it is the importance of network testing and service piloting to ensure that UK networks – BT’s and interconnecting CPS operators - can offer an efficient retail service which customers can use, which results in the CPS service going live nationally at the same time. Not only does this ensure that the CPS service available to consumers is efficient and reliable, but it also facilitates marketing by CPS operators and avoids customer confusion created by uncertainty over delivery dates

However, it may be that once roll-out is underway, Oftel can discuss with DGXIII any anticipated improvement in the timetable set out above which might lead to bringing forward service availability on a national basis at the same time.

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