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NextGen '08 conference round up
21 Nov 2008 | 20.45 Europe/London
The NextGen '08 conference held earlier this month in Manchester brought together a range of opinions and speakers on the subject of Next Generation Access (NGA). The presentations can be downloaded as pdf files from the web site and make interesting reading.
Francesco Caio presented the findings of his recent Next Generation Access Review which concluded that direct Government intervention was probably unnecessary as the green shoots of NGA investments by Virgin Media and Openreach point to a private sector solution. He does however call from a number of important initiatives to promote investment in NGA :-
In order to reduce the cost of NGA deployment Caio also calls for more freedom to use overhead connections and low cost no-dig solutions to putting fibre underground.
The use of open networks over which service providers compete to provide internet access, email, entertainment, telephony etc over those networks was a theme running through several presentations. Community or local ownership of access networks with interconnection to third party services would represent a significant shift from the current model of large ISPs / telecoms companies owning the networks and delivering inclusive services. There are competing ideologies at work, outlined by Adrian Wooster of CBN in comparing individual point to point "campus" fibre networks to "top down" GPON or HFC cable broadband networks - the latter are based largely on the concept of end users as consumers whereas the former assumes end users are producers and participants and hence need symmetrical networks rather than just high download speed.
Another of the speakers was Roger Darlington of OFCOM's Consumer Panel, who have published an interesting video on YouTube contrasting experiences of users with next generation access and some UK broadband users. Roger raised concerns about the scope of NGA coverage as a proportion of the population are likely to be beyond the economic reach of a commercial NGA rollout, leading to digital exclusion from the many society activities and services likely to evolve as more bandwidth becomes available. There is even a suggestion that NGA rollout should start with current broadband notspots, although nobody seems to be stepping forward to meet this challenge.
Francesco Caio presented the findings of his recent Next Generation Access Review which concluded that direct Government intervention was probably unnecessary as the green shoots of NGA investments by Virgin Media and Openreach point to a private sector solution. He does however call from a number of important initiatives to promote investment in NGA :-
- Release more radio spectrum for first mile wireless access.
- Mandate transparency on bandwidth and traffic management so consumers are fully aware of what their service provides.
- Define an NGA specification for incorporation into new homes.
In order to reduce the cost of NGA deployment Caio also calls for more freedom to use overhead connections and low cost no-dig solutions to putting fibre underground.
The use of open networks over which service providers compete to provide internet access, email, entertainment, telephony etc over those networks was a theme running through several presentations. Community or local ownership of access networks with interconnection to third party services would represent a significant shift from the current model of large ISPs / telecoms companies owning the networks and delivering inclusive services. There are competing ideologies at work, outlined by Adrian Wooster of CBN in comparing individual point to point "campus" fibre networks to "top down" GPON or HFC cable broadband networks - the latter are based largely on the concept of end users as consumers whereas the former assumes end users are producers and participants and hence need symmetrical networks rather than just high download speed.
Another of the speakers was Roger Darlington of OFCOM's Consumer Panel, who have published an interesting video on YouTube contrasting experiences of users with next generation access and some UK broadband users. Roger raised concerns about the scope of NGA coverage as a proportion of the population are likely to be beyond the economic reach of a commercial NGA rollout, leading to digital exclusion from the many society activities and services likely to evolve as more bandwidth becomes available. There is even a suggestion that NGA rollout should start with current broadband notspots, although nobody seems to be stepping forward to meet this challenge.