Quality of European telecommunications services
The European Commission, DG XIII, has released the final report of a study on the "Harmonization of quality of service parameters for the provision of pan-European telecommunications services within the context of ONP" (Open Network Provision). The study, undertaken by independent consultants on behalf of the Commission, aimed to analyse quality of service (QoS) issues in view of the forthcoming liberalization of the European telecommunications market from January 1998. The study was based on experiences from liberalized markets in the United Kingdom and in New York State, and on questionnaires sent to interested parties in the EU and beyond. The questionnaire survey included national regulatory authorities, telecoms operators, manufacturers, user associations and standardization bodies. The substantive objectives of the study may be summarized as follows: - Identification of the best means of achieving adequate end-to-end QoS levels in the EU; - Assessment of the roles of QoS actors (the European Commission, national regulatory authorities, telecoms operators, manufacturers, user associations and standardization bodies); - Investigation of technical and non-technical QoS standards that may be needed; - Development of recommendations for QoS issues to be included in interconnection agreements. The final report includes a conceptual framework for the analysis of regulatory intervention for optimum QoS regulation in the emerging competition phase. This is based on experiences in the UK and New York State in this phase where competition in the core business of voice telephony and network infrastructure is very limited (only mobile network licences and, in some cases, duopoly for fixed network licences). The core chapters make recommendations for a European regulatory framework in environments with developing competition, with no restriction on market entry in the voice telephony industry, and where the network infrastructure competition is beginning to unfold. Here the study distinguishes between QoS regulation at the retail level and QoS regulation at the interconnection level. The concluding chapters focus on the key elements of these recommendations, with the objective of providing more guidance to QoS actors/players in Europe.