Get Policies Right to Shape NGN Markets, Industry Groups Say
LONDON -- Because “regulation shapes markets,” it’s important that the U.K. and EU find the right balance between consumer and infrastructure protection on the one hand, and giving next-generation service providers enough leeway to innovate on the other, Britain’s Internet industry said here Thurs. The policy mix should include self-regulation as well as a focus on “digital choice,” others said at the parliamentary conference hosted by the All Party Internet Group.
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Industry is at a “pivotal point” from a regulatory perspective in the U.K. and globally, said Eli Katz, chmn. of the Internet Telephony Services Providers Assn. (ITSPA). As the telecom world moves to next-generation services, regulators must decide whether to maintain the heavy-handed approach applied to telcos or use a lighter touch. Internet Protocol (IP) is meshing with TV, radio and telephony, all of which used to be highly regulated, said ITSPA Vice Chmn. Kim Thesiger of Gossiptel, a VoIP provider. That’s sparking concern that convergence will mean more regulation in the IP space, he said.
The right regulatory touch is important for development of new IP products, Thesiger said. The Office of Communications’s (Ofcom’s) decision so far to avoid Internet regulation has led many VoIP players to enter the market. The biggest risk is that new rules for the IP world could reshape the market, said Antony Walker, CEO of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, a govt. advisory panel. Ofcom is mulling VoIP rules which, in their present form, will punish U.K. players, Thesiger said. ITSPA was created to press for self- regulation, said Katz, but Ofcom appears headed in another direction.
ITSPA is talking to Ofcom and other govt. agencies to learn how to make them comfortable with the new technologies, Thesiger said. There’s always the possibility that EU regulators will take a less-liberal tack, however, and he warned industry to get its act together before approaching the EU about VoIP.
The panel was asked whether it will also address IPTV with regulators. Many of the VoIP issues industry and regulators are now grappling with -- and many of the battles companies are having with Ofcom -- will be replayed in 2 years over IPTV, Thesiger said.
The discussion has already begun with reference to video-on-demand, where the same process of pitting old rules against new services is beginning, Walker said. The issue is how to ensure adequate bandwidth as video services drive up demand in order to spur investment in new infrastructure. Three models are in use around the world: The German concept of a regulatory holiday to allow Deutsche Telekom to build a fiber network; French local loop unbundling that has created a market with 3 or 4 major players; and U.S. reliance on cable deployment.
It’s difficult to see where the investment to build out fiber networks will come from in the U.K., Thesiger said. Britain needs a new convergence regulatory model, Walker said. To that end, companies have formed a new trade group, Next Generation Network UK.
Consumers have taken to user-generated online content in a big way, said Yahoo Europe Vp-Media & Communications Jon Gisby. The company is responding by launching services here and elsewhere that build on the demand. But as communications move from a world in which distribution and consumption were bottlenecks and regulatory objectives were clearly defined, it’s becoming impossible to control and regulate consumer attention.
Yahoo is pleading with govts. to set policy based on evidence of what Internet users are actually doing online, Gisby said. It must be future-focused, because the markets are moving at incredible speed, and allow open competition while managing the transition, because the Internet affects an enormous part of the economy. The proper policy mix involves industry self-regulation, he said, and if it’s done right, people will regulate themselves online.
Govt. focus should be on “digital choice” as much as on the digital divide, said Oxford Internet Institute (OII) Dir. William Dutton. OII surveys in 2003 and 2005 of British Internet use showed a marked divide not only between “haves” and “have-nots” but between those who have the ability to get online but choose not to and those willing to take the risk. Age, income and education level are factors, but some people simply aren’t interested, the surveys found.
The Internet “reconfigures access,” changing not only how people access information but what information they get, not simply how they communicate with others but who they talk to, and so on, Dutton said. Strategic thinking is needed now about how the Internet is used. Realizing the potential of a worldwide cyberstructure means addressing the socioeconomic digital divide, getting older people interested, focussing on patterns of use and production, not just on getting online, and creating and maintaining a “learned level” of trust on the Net, he said. OII’s findings are helping to focus the govt. on digital choice, he said.