Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Thoughts from the BSG COTS meeting (#cots)
So this is what happens when you get so many different people from different companies with different perspectives into the same room!Essentially the meeting today was to kick off discussions around the COTS Project (that's Commercial, Operational and Technical Standards) for Independent Local Access Networks. In other words how to ensure all these disparate groups work to common standards to interact with the major players and others wanting involvement. A complex area in itself often highjacked by other areas of discussion, such as funding for NGA, which are no less important but not what the meeting was for. We heard from a number of 'stakeholders' from the BSG and BIS (The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills or DTI as we used to know them), to Ofcom promoting their work on ALA (Active Line Access see here for more detail), to INCA (Independent Networks Co-operative Association) and their initial work on the JON concept (Joined Up Network), to IFNL describing their requirements for their ongoing FTTH project and finally a seasoned UK telecom professional reflecting that we have done all this before and can reuse what has already been achieved (not IMO but that doesn't mean we can't at least learn from it). All very interesting, if disparate points of view but perhaps this is also the major challenge we face - not just for the COTS discussion, but for any consensus on NGA in general: there are just too damn many stakeholders! Everyone from the farmers on the Dales to the network architects in existing operators to the civil servants in Ofcom has their point of view and there is not a chance that they are all going to agree very often. Perhaps we need to consider the challenges separately with a body that can join up the thinking (the BSG?). Take those groups who wish to cover the 2/3 of the addressable markets in urban areas on the one hand and then the final 1/3 on the other. Two very disparate groups who don't like to talk together but can both provide very useful input into these processes. Anyway, what was the net result of our 3 hours in London today? Errr... hold on, we must have achieved something... no, nothing that springs to mind. Bugger. Well, we didn't disagree with the BSG statement on COTS, although feedback is due to them so perhaps that will change and there will be a steering committee formed to which we are all invited. At some point. Perhaps in September. Let's be positive, there is a lot of interest in this area and a lot of desire to put in place a framework that will make the NGA patchwork quilt work. There is even a desire to do it now given the projects already ongoing. There were in excess of 60 people attending the meeting in London today, all of whom wish to see a common framework for content providers, ISPs, large operators, municipal networks and community networks to interact. Fantastic! Now let's be pragmatic. There was no vocal representation from any of the large operators other than Sky, who were clearly delighted to be the largest group prepared to admit their presence. This is an area the group (I will not put undue pressure on BSG here as the facilitator, although they must take heed) must focus on. Without direct and meaningful input from BT, Virgin Media, C&W, KCom et al. the work that will be achieved will be meaningless. Frameworks are only as strong as the parties who sign up to them, therefore this must be entirely inclusive. There also seems to be an inherent distrust of work taking place outside of that sphere. The 'not invented here' syndrome. From where I sit (and I will gladly admit I do not have an all encompassing view) the work that INCA have started and their JON concept is pretty much what is needed but there did not seem to be a desire to put the weight of the BSG behind it. Perhaps this will come once the initial posturing has finished, we can but hope. BSG think we can put all of this in place in 9 to 12 months. It's going to take some strong leadership to achieve that!
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Thanks for taking the time to both attend the meeting and for posting your summary of what went on Mark - it is astounding that there was no webcast let alone a video archive of the proceedings - hardly high tech or inclusive huh?
ReplyDeleteMy sense regarding the importance of "the big boys" is that it is for them to take up the offer of participation and their involvement is optional and non critical path.
ie if the current market players for broadband don't see the value in creating NextGen Britain then no problem, those of us who do recognise its importance will JFDI without them.
GEC and Marconi were once giants and today...