Bitstream access and active network sharing: A focus on VULA in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Bitstream access and active network sharing: A focus on VULA in Europe

The Telecommunications Regulatory Conference 2014, Doha Antoine Fournier, Colt

Deputy Director Regulatory, Strategy&Economics

VULA, in principle a replacement of LLU

• 5 principles identified for Virtual Unbundling

Local Access (VULA):

• Local access
• Service agnostic access
• Uncontended access
• Control of access
• Control of CPE

VULA is a bitstream offer that has been designed to imitate the economy of ULL

References (UK): http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/wla/statement/WLA_statement.pdf http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/fixed-access-market-reviews/summary/fixed-access-markets.pdf

…that has been implemented in UK and Austria

• UK: a quick start, especially for BT Retail
• Opened before the regulatory obligation decided in 2010
• 1.5million subscribers over VULA on 31st March 2013 but

87% from BT retail (with only 33% of Superfast Broadband* retail market share)

• 2 OLO directly using VULA (TalkTalk and Sky) others through

national bitstream

• Austria: a slow start for OLOs
• Mandatory since September 2010 (market review)
• Tele2 and UPC requested VULA in 2011
• By end of 2013, only 1200 customers migrated to VULA for

UPC and only 10% of Tele2 customers migrated.

References: (UK) http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/fixed-access-market-reviews/summary/fixed-access-markets.pdf, p230 (Austria) M_001.001_2012_Regulatorischer_Bescheid *: Superfast broadband includes in the UK all accesses with a bandwidth above 30 Mbps at least for the download bandwidth.

Technically, VULA remains a bitstream offer with the corresponding specific constraints

• OFCOM (2013):

“If there are further requirements [for business], these may be better met by alternative products such as leased lines.”, §11.81

Unlike LLU, VULA is a residential-oriented access product due to the technical limitations of equipment. (Different equipment is needed for Carrier-Grade access)

Reference: (UK) http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/fixed-access-market-reviews/summary/fixed-access-markets.pdf, p237

Without Carrier Grade Ethernet, the business market is not properly served

Retail Market

• Benefits:
• 1. No IP fragmentation
• 2. Ensures layer 3-layer 2

independence

• 3. Security: no firewall

function is necessary at Ethernet level

Wholesale Market

• Benefits: Transparency

Enables the wholesale customer to put its own Ethernet Header Ethernet Header of the wholesale provider

VULA is the “Wholesale Line Rental” (WLR) for Data

• Such as Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), VULA:

 offers a flat rate Local Access through a standard active protocol,  supposes that technological evolution is finished

• Unlike WLR, VULA does not cover the business specific

Local Access need  VULA is not enough to replace LLU.

A decade ago, VoIP/VoB appeared thanks to LLU and not WLR. Can we really be sure that there is no potential for disruptive innovation in services during the next decade?"

Annex

Colt’s network footprint