NICC News

The Board of the Network Interoperability Consultative Committee (NICC) met in July for the 40th time.

The concept of the Business to Business Forum (B to B) was introduced to the meeting by its Chairman Reg Taylor. The Forum is an industry grouping that was convened in 2000 to develop standards, technology and architecture for gateway order systems between BT Group and other telecommunications providers. The Forum's aim is to reach an agreed common interface for order handling systems with different purposes such as carrier pre selection and local loop unbundling. It is recognised under the DTI subgroup SG4 which has a link to the ITU. Last year B to B focused on inter-telco trading, this year Service Level Agreements, treble ticketing, enforcement of agreements and unified orders (with input from the USA) are being scrutinised.

Membership is open to all interested parties and currently there are 20 active members, mainly operators but also Service Providers, Internet Service Providers and system providers. The meeting agreed that B to B should be invited to become an Interest Group of the NICC.

The combined manufacturers' Interest Group, ESS-IG (Equipment and Systems Suppliers Interest Group) announced the retirement of secretary Mike Everard (IBM). NICC Chairman Professor John O'Reilly thanked Mike for his contribution to the work of the NICC. The election of a replacement will be announced in the next issue. ESS-IG is revitalising its activities and would welcome more manufacturers. The Interest Group is currently considering an issue raised by the On-Site Communications Association (OSCA).

The Digital Subscriber Line and Carrier Pre Selection Task Groups are seeking to increase and broaden the background of their membership for this important work.

Professor John O'Reilly welcomed Nick Ireland (BT Group) to his first meeting of the NICC Board as the nominated Public Network Operators' Interest Group Secretary. John O'Reilly thanked retiring secretary Ian Laidlaw-Dickson (BT Group) for his important contribution to the work of the NICC over many years since taking up the secretarial role in 1993.

A report was received from the UK ISUP Administrative Working Group (AWG), which is working to ensure an orderly migration of the UK networks to the use of the UK version of ETSI Signalling System No.7 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) User Part (UK ISUP) for interconnection. AWG has agreed to review the Memorandum of Understanding milestones but leave the main body of the text untouched. Doug Turner has stepped down as Chairman and an election of a new Chairman will take place at the next meeting on 17 October 2002.

The Public Network Operators Interest Group has written to the Operator Policy Forum asking it to consider two recommendations from the Number Portability Task Group review of number portability high level service descriptions concerning Congestion and seeking Alternative Commercial Solutions. At the time of writing Oftel was in the process of carrying out a consultation on proposals to change the framework for number portability, published at www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/numbering/2002/nupo0602.htm.

The New Technologies Call Control Protocols User Part Task Group Chairman Stewart Alexander has retired from BT Group. Eric Rogers (BT Group) has been nominated to take his place. John O'Reilly has thanked Stewart for his contribution to the NICC.

The Digital Subscriber Line Task Group has completed another phase of its work, with the release of Guidelines concerning external and inter-network interference issues.
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The NICC Open Forum 2002

This year's NICC Open Forum will be held on Thursday 14 November and returns to Simmons and Simmons who have kindly offered the use of their facilities at City Point, Ropemaker Street, London EC2Y 9SS. BT Group, Spitfire and Telewest have also offered to sponsor the event, which will discuss an interesting range of topics.

The NICC Technical Secretary welcomes suggestions from manufacturers, operators, service providers and other interested parties for thought-provoking presentations and subjects for discussion. Application may be made to the NICC Technical Secretary for an invitation to this complimentary event at nicc.openforum@oftel.gov.uk. Places are restricted and early application is recommended.

Joining the NICC

Interested parties from the telecommunications industry are invited to join the NICC Task and Interest Groups by initially contacting the NICC Technical Secretary to discuss their interests.

For general information about the structure and activities of NICC, please visit the NICC section of the Oftel website (www.oftel.gov.uk/ind_groups/nicc). Otherwise contact the NICC Technical Secretary, Roy Davies (tel. 020 7634 8906 / e-mail roy.davies@oftel.gov.uk) or the Network Interoperability Programme Manager, Bill Hawkins (tel. 020 7634 8807 / e-mail bill.hawkins@oftel.gov.uk).