NTS Focus Group - 7th October 2004

Meeting Notes & Actions

Colin Scott	THUS (Chair)
Dominic Carney	Your Communications
Caroline Wallace	Ofcom
Geoff Brighton	Ofcom
Richard Anderson	MCI
Dave Simpson	Easynet
Pilar Guerrerc	Easynet
Toby Higho	Centrica
Debbie Mulloy	NTL
Ray Copeland	Opera Telecom
Chris Pace	IV Response
Andy Martin	IV Response
Dirmuid Jennings	Reality Telecom
Rickard Granberg	Opal
Karen Wray	C&W
Andrew Wileman	Telewest
Matin Pagnamenta	Gamma Telecom
Helen Morgan	Energis
Roberto Ercole	REA Ltd
Clive Goodwin	COLT
Kath Embleton	BT
Colin Annette	BT
Alex Cheetham	BT
Mike Barford	Tiscali

Agenda item (2): Ofcom Presentation – NTS Framework Re-examination Update

Caroline Wallace said that as outlined in her email of last week to NTS FG members, the NTS Framework consultation publication date had been delayed. Ofcom had taken the decision to improve the accessibility of the publication by altering the style (but not the substance) of document to make it more reader friendly. The revised publication date is now the end of October (and it is likely that the document will be published outside of Ofcom’s fortnightly batch publication release dates). Ofcom apologised for any inconvenience to members of the Focus Group caused by the delay.

Ofcom will publish a suite of documents:

A policy document on options for NTS in the UK
A Market Review
A Plain English Summary (Crystal Mark approved)

The documents will be accompanied by an Ofcom press release. Ofcom have noted the requests from NTS FG members for embargoed copies of the documents prior to formal publication, however there are no plans to provide an advanced release. Ofcom would like the opportunity to articulate the issues and options in the document to stakeholders at the earliest opportunity.

Given the delay in the publication date Ofcom had considered shortening the 10 week period for comments, however due to the complex nature of the issues 10 weeks will be provided (with additional allowance for holiday periods as necessary).

Ofcom outlined some of the content of the document:

In the first part of the policy document 5 options for NTS will be presented. The option previously known as option 2 has been dropped (due to a number of legal concerns regarding implementation); however it is discussed later in the document, although it isn’t presented as one of the options actively being considered. The option previously known as option 3 (but now referred to as option 2 in the document) has been put forward as Ofcom’s preferred option.

The second part of the document concerns a number of consumer issues. The document discussed a number of issues including:

Adult content on 08 numbers
Consumer pricing transparency
Consumer protection initiatives
The role of ICSTIS in NTS

Ofcom indicated that their thinking on these issues was green and that they had no preferred option to address the consumer issues raised in the document as yet and were therefore consulting as widely as possible.

In the market review document Ofcom have reviewed the NTS call termination market (not the market for the supply of NTS services) and had reached the preliminary conclusion that BT (and BT alone) had SMP in NTS call termination. The market review document also discusses possible remedies to an SMP finding including a network access obligation and a non-discrimination provision.

The Market Review timetable involves the following stages:

National Consultation (represented by the document about to be published)
Phase 2 – European-level Consultation
Phase 3 – Final Statement

Ofcom said the consultation would last 10 weeks, and Ofcom would take about a further two months to consider the comments received. A statement on Ofcom’s final decision as to the preferred policy option would then be published, and would be likely to include the necessary statutory consultations to put the new regulatory framework in place by mid 2005, approximately.

Ofcom then envisages establishing an industry implementation project to oversee any changes to the UK NTS regime.

NTS FG Members asked a series of Questions:

Q	Colin Annette asked if a new deadline for comments took us past Christmas?
A	Caroline Wallace said the revised deadline would be in January, however it was recognised that the Christmas holiday period would reduce the number of working days available to respondents, so the exact consultation period would be greater than 10 elapsed weeks (to help reduce the impact of annual leave over Christmas).

Q	Andrew Wileman asked why Ofcom dropped Option 2.
A	The legal advice Ofcom obtained on the implementation of Option 2 indicated that it had a number of very problematic legal obstacles which prevented it from being considered as a viable option.

Q	Karen Wray asked if Ofcom envisaged any problems from the European Commission on the NTS Call Termination Market Review.
A	No – Ofcom have already discussed the issues raised in the Market Review briefly with the Commission and NTS was already on the list of markets so no problems were anticipated although dialogue with the Commission would be undertaken.

Q	Colin Scott asked if Ofcom were planning any more NTS information requests.
A	Ofcom said that no further NTS information requests were planned at this stage.

Q	Alex Cheetham asked if there was an examination of the international bench marking research carried out by Ofcom.
Q	Ofcom said that the desk research carried out by Ofcom on international bench marking would be included in an Annex to the main document.

Q	Helen Morgan asked if ICSTIS role would be discussed in the document
A	Ofcom said that the document had a narrower focus and discussed the issue of ICSTIS regulation of 08, however the document had been written in co-operation with other projects looking into the future role of ICSTIS

Q	Helen Morgan asked if anything was being done to address NCCN 500.
A	Ofcom said that NTS termination market review would consider the issue of NCCN 500.

Q	Debbie Mulloy asked if Ofcom could supply further detail on why the document had been delayed.
A	Ofcom apologised again for the delay, acknowledging that stakeholders had already set up meetings to discuss the contents of the document, however the only reason for the delay was the re-drafting needed to improve accessibility. Although this sounded a relatively simple task it was in fact a major piece of work.

Q	Colin Scott asked if Ofcom envisaged the industry implementation groups being associated with the NTS FG.
A	Caroline Wallace said that Ofcom hadn’t considered in detail how the industry implementation groups would be organised, however the NTS FG seemed an appropriate forum for engaging with industry stakeholders.

Q	Dave Simpson asked if BT’s 21CN project had been considered in the document.
A	Ofcom said that BT’s 21CN project will be discussed as part of the consultation.

Colin Annette said that due to the delay in publication, BT’s planned session on the NTS document on the 22nd of October would have to reschedule. A revised meeting date would be circulated to NTS FG members in due course.

Agenda item (3): Ofcom Update – Other NTS issues

INCA / CLI Direction:

Geoff Brighton apologised for the delay in the publication of the final INCA CLI Direction, this was due to unexpected leave commitments following a family bereavement. The Direction is now expected to be published with the second publication batch in late October.

NTS Retail Uplift:

The target publication date for this document is November, however future NTS Retail Uplift policy must take account of the outcome from the NTS Framework re-examination consultation (eg. if assumptions are made on pricing for the uplift calculation, if that pricing changes as a result of the framework re-examination those assumptions will have to change).

Alex Cheetham asked if the proposals within the NTS Retail Uplift document would be implemented for a period of time. Geoff Brighton said yes, but the exact period would need to consider the impact if any of the framework re-examination.

Mike Barford asked if the document contained proposals for building in a review of the uplift going forward.

Caroline Wallace said that some consideration is being given as to whether a review mechanism would be appropriate.

Colin Scott asked what the effective date would be for the revised uplift? Geoff Brighton said this was still under consideration and would be specified in the document.

Agenda Item (4) – Review of Remaining Outstanding Actions

#K/2:	All operators to provide feedback to Becky Hewlett on questions 1 -3 below relating to the application of the ‘squirreling’ option for distributing the minimum call fee: 1) What interest arrangements should cover the over-recovered amount prior to it being distributed to operators? 2) What was an appropriate trigger level amount for the money to be distributed to operators? 3) What date should this new arrangement commence from?
	Carried Forward – Colin Scott agreed to put this issue on the agenda for the next meeting.
#M/1	BT to discuss the issue of an industry technical workshop on NTS INCA/CLI billing internally and let operators know if one will be held.
	Carried Forward – Awaiting the Publication of the INCA/CLI Direction
# N/1	All operators to contact Colin Scott if they are interested in joining a conference on the issue of PPP double counting in NTS.
	Carried Forward – Only one operator had expressed an interest in participating in a conference call.
# N/2:	BT to confirm what arrangements are currently in place for NGNP (ie. what rates are used by BT for number exports and imports – the operators NCD or CPL section 1.06 rates).
	Closed. Kath Embleton Provided the following answer: The arrangements in place currently are: NTS Outgoing/NGNP Import - BT to CP leg of call, POLO paid @ NCD rates/ CP back to BT leg of call, ROLO charged @ CPL 1.06 rates. NTS Incoming/NGNP Export - Sending CP to BT leg, ROLO charged @ 1.06 rates/ BT to Terminating CP, POLO paid @ NCD rates. Colin Scott said this would present operators with problems as they would end up paying more out in a POLO than they would receive if they had less then the maximum POC count or were exporting 0845 and 0870 numbers (due to higher charges being applied as a result of NCCN 500). FG members requested the issue be put on the agenda for the next meeting (with the possibility of inviting the chair of the Number Portability Group Mick Wadham to the next NTS FG).

Agenda item (5) – Any Other Business

The Chair noted that this was Clive Goodwin’s last NTS FG. Clive was thanked for his contribution to the NTS Focus Group over the past few years.

Dominic Carney expressed surprise at the delay in the Framework re-examination document and asked if this was due to resource constraints within Ofcom, and asked if so, what would happen next year with increasing amount of activity being devoted to BT’s 21CN project.

Caroline Wallace said that NTS had a very high profile within Ofcom and that Ofcom worked hard to manage workloads and was currently estimating the work loads required for next year. Ofcom also worked with stakeholders to ensure that priorities were set. If stakeholders wished to comment on Ofcom’s plans and priorities for next year more generally they could do so via Ofcom’s consultation on its Annual Plan.

Date of Next Meeting :

Thursday 18th November – 2pm Ofcom – Riverside House, London

Summary of New and Outstanding Actions:

#K/2:	All operators to provide feedback to Becky Hewlett on questions 1 -3 below relating to the application of the ‘squirreling’ option for distributing the minimum call fee: 4) What interest arrangements should cover the over-recovered amount prior to it being distributed to operators? 5) What was an appropriate trigger level amount for the money to be distributed to operators? 6) What date should this new arrangement commence from?
#M/1	BT to discuss the issue of an industry technical workshop on NTS INCA/CLI billing internally and let operators know if one will be held.
# N/1	All operators to contact Colin Scott if they are interested in joining a conference on the issue of PPP double counting in NTS.
# O/1	Colin Scott to add the issue of NGNP for BT imports and the minimum call fee to the next NTS FG Agenda.