The Board of the Network Interoperability Consultative Committee (NICC) met in July for the 44th time.

In the review of the work of the Interest Groups and the progress of the Studies being undertaken by the Task Groups, the Public Network Operators Interest Group (PNO-IG) raised a number of issues relating to telecoms data protection, particularly the automatic call rejection facility.

The Interconnect Standards Committee (ISC) made a significant response to Oftel's consultation on calling line identity. When Oftel's statement, following the consultation, is published, it is now likely that the Committee will need to review the existing Code of Practice to ensure that it is technology-neutral.

The Digital Subscriber Line Task Group (DSL-TG) continues to monitor developments relating to the Radiocommunications Agency enforcement standard for emissions from telecommunications networks, MPT1570, and associated activities in Europe.

Work by DSL-TG on the study on the effect of cross-talk in private networks continues and involves representatives from the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) as well as the regular members of the task group.

Work also continues in a combined operators' and manufacturers' Task Group to revise the national transmission plan for public networks and the network code of practice for private networks. It had been hoped that a draft of the revised plan would be available later in the summer. Recent changes to a key ITU-U standard on end-to-end signal delay could have a major impact on this work. The Chairman of the End-to-End Quality of Service Task Group explained the possible impact of these changes in a presentation. The Study on the transmission plan may have to include additional recommendations to cover the UK network in order that there is no degradation in performance of calls, particularly those where additional facilities such as carrier pre-selection and number portability, are involved.

The Business to Business Forum Interest Group (B2B-IG) presented a study proposal to the Board. This study is intended to identify the requirements and issues related to a common B2B platform for ordering and managing telecommunications services between UK operators. The Board approved this study, the 66th to be undertaken by NICC.

Interconnection specifications

These specifications and other formal documents produced by NICC can now be found on Oftel's website at www.oftel.gov.uk/ind_groups/nicc/public. The work to re-structure this part of the Oftel website continues over the next few months. Anyone encountering difficulty in locating a particular document should contact the NICC Secretary for assistance.

The NICC Open Forum 2003

This year's NICC Open Forum will be held on 13 November, by kind invitation, at the City Point offices of Simmons and Simmons. This will be the last NICC Open Forum run under the existing Oftel regime. The theme will be Into the Ofcom Era, and whilst being forward-looking, will reflect on some of the important achievements of NICC to date. The NICC Secretary would still welcome suggestions for speakers and presentations.

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. It is worth noting that there are no direct costs of membership of a NICC Group but considerable potential benefit. Membership is open to operators, service providers and manufacturers.

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/index.htm). The NICC Technical Secretary is Keith Bowman who can be contacted on 020 7634 5348 or by e-mail to keith.bowman@oftel.gov.uk.