Austria: "We regulate y'all"

In a stunning move Austria's Regulatory Authority RTR has announced ( German / Google Translation ) its intention to regulate the world.

The world according to RTR:

There are service providers whose calls always stay on the internet (Class B - such as MSN Messenger) and those whose calls may touch the Austrian PSTN (Class A - such as Vonage). Class A services are considere PATS services in line with the EU's directives. It follows from this logic that RTR asserts regulatory power over all those providers who facilitate calls to Austria.

Yet worse, RTR has chosen to limit consumers' choice by restricting access to landline numbers to network operators - a move likely to make Austria's consumers the world's first to leave the E.164 numbering plan (at least +43) and migrate into private numbering schemes such as Skype's (or different country codes).

No Bellhead - No Cry

This month the rarest of beasts, the inventive telco, has made an unprecedented appearance. At the time it also became apparent that the industry is in a transition phase. But mind you; it is not the transition of separating network access and voice service is that we are here to witness, but the migration from network businesses into law firms and lobbying circles. What has happened?

Germany's watchdog Bundesnetzagentur für Elektrizität, Gas, Telekommunikation, Post und Eisenbahnen (BNA former RegTP) acknowledged the existence of a closed-door working group to debate guidelines for interconnecting IP based networks. Puzzling at first the immediate questions springing to mind are:

• IP based networks are already interconnected. Why discuss a new interconnection regime for something which is already there?
• Why has BNA not heard of IP interconnects?
• Why is the perfectly valid and more pressing question of how to interconnect IP based services tied to interconnecting networks?
• And why does BNA not even consider to look into interconnecting services?

The answers to all those questions are as bad as it can possibly get.

Network lobbyists have successfully promoted an upside-down approach with BNA's president Matthias Kurth. Based on the idea that tomorrows NGN / IMS solutions will carry internet access as a service (Yikes!) BNA needs to move the interconnection regime from PSTN interconnects to NGN interconnects they argue. Inherent to this approach is the impact on todays regime for reciprocal compensation. Rather than making the long overdue move from a calling-party-pays model to a bill-and-keep regime as even mandated from U.S. carrier big wigs (PDF) Germany's networks are aiming to get it all.

The rationale behind this move is to determine the cost of efficient service provision as required by Germany's Telecommunications Act as the base for compensation. The potential outcome: Voice services that also provide internet access will receive compensation for terminating calls on top of IP traffic already billed to their customers - everyone else receives zip.

Finally, the first "useful" application for NGN / IMS has surfaced: Being an obstacle in legal proceedings. But do not be fooled; major technical and marketing issues such as those expressed by Martin Geddes will not go away.

Asking the regulator to set up a parallel biosphere for network operators who are unwilling and incapable of adapting to the real world is as pointless as the car industry asking the goverment to make accidents illegal - only because it would be nicer. But it perfectly shows the confusion in the industry to an extent which leaves me speechless.

Come on everybody! Sing along some soothing words:

I seh, O little - O little darlin', don't shed no fears;
No, bellhead, no cry, eh...

IFA: DTAG CEO keynotes in front of paid students

The looming threat of loneliness at its keynote has alledgely prompted organizers at IFA 2005 in Berlin to hire on students to fill in the gaps. 16 to 20 € an hour plus food were spent to mask the apparent lack of interest in Deutsche Telekom IMS and Triple-Play vision according to Austrian DER STANDARD ( German / Google Translation ). According to DIE TAGESZEITUNG who broke to original as many as 600 students may have been hired.

Most disturbing is this related report ( German / Google Translation ). IFA's HR agentve has been accused to trying single out coloured students and soley hire white students.

Makes you wonder what comes next. A move to rebrand Deutsche Telekom as Arian Telekom?

Emergency Services in Germany - No Biggie

Breko, Germany's Association of facility based carriers, felt inclined ( German / Google translation) to voice their concern regarding possbile exceptions for VoIP services to provide access to emergency service capabilities. Their fairly transparent tactic has prompted even international feedback such as the comments from Richard Stastny and Jeff Pulver.

What at first look appears to be a potentail shop stopper for most players is fortunately a minor issue. Unlike in the U.S. there is a single incumbent in Germany (Deutsche Telekom) and routing to all PSAPs for all emergency numbers (110 and 112) is part of the standard interconnection agreement. Even the correct routing table with some 10,000+ routing entries is provided by Deutsche Telekom. Based on this interconnection service we at sigpate have already eastablish full routing to emergency services. In the absence of obligations for mobile operatators even Breko is not going so far to require a mechanism to automatically detect a subscriber's location.

This naturally leads to the question where the big issues then lie. Two issues really. First, in the absence of a noticable marketshare for both cable companies and alternative DSL providers naked-DSL is badly needed. Second, in the light of the recent announcements from two 3G networks (Eplus and Vodafone) to block VoIP services legally binding guidelines for "open access" aka "unfiltered network access" need to be implemented.

And again, we see Breko do what they feel inclined to do - they remain silent.

Mobile Schizophrenia

Germany's mobile network E-Plus announced the immediate availability of its all-you-can-eat 3G data plan. Punters may opt for unlimited UMTS/GPRS traffic at 39,95 € per month on top of their existing calling plans.

Today's Press release (German / Google Translation ) makes a most interesting read. E-Plus bundles Skype along with its data plan while explicitly prohibiting the use of VoIP in their Ts & Cs (see bottom of the press release).