Local Loop Unbundling: A Way for Societies to Benefit from ICT

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Local Loop Unbundling A Way for Societies to
Benefit from ICT
by Teddy Mwakabaga, Ishmael Msiza and Tshilidzi
Marwala School of Electrical Information
Eng. Email t.mwakabaga_at_ee.wits.ac.za
5th International Conference on Open
Access Paradise Holiday Resort, Bagamoyo,
Tanzania 14-16 November 2007
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Agenda

• Introduction
• LLU and ICT Services
• Affordability
• Innovations
• Awaking sleeping giants
• A way forward
• Summary Conclusions

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Definition

• Is a regulatory process of allowing multiple
  locally- and national telecommunications
  operators to make use of connections from the
  telephone exchange central office to the
  customers premises. (Wikipedia definition).
• Is a process that covers a series of regulatory
  offers that is aimed at fairly providing newly
  entrant operators with access to the local loop
  in a competitive environment.

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LLU Technical Overview
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LLU Structures

• Full unbundling
• Operator has access to low and frequency bands
• Line sharing
• One operator occupies one frequency band and the
  remaining frequency band is taken by another.
• Bitstream access
• Operators provide broadband services as ISPs.

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LLU and ICT Services How Societies Benefit ?
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New Entrants Roll

• New innovative solutions
• Affordable access
• Customers have more choice
• Number portability
• Quality services
• Reaching under serviced areas
• Alternative technologies

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Africans World Contribution
Source 2007 World Information Society Report
ITU
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Incumbents Roll

• Full participation in the process
• Close relationship with new entrants
• More customers focus
• Subscribers
• New entrants
• Facilitate access to the local loop
• High speed backbone network

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A Meeting Point
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A Good Picture
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LLU Challenges

• Regulatory challenges
• Implementation and disputes
• Incumbents involvement
• New entrants demands and promises
• New entrants
• Obtaining information from incumbents
• Incumbents
• Seen new entrants as parasites
• Handling subscribers database

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Success of LLU

• Depends on
• A regulatory framework that supports LLU
• Cooperation between incumbent and new entrants
  under regulated environment
• Regulators convincing muscle

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Good Results
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Expectations

• More opportunities for new entrants to deliver
• More broadband services
• More affordable services through competition
• Innovations with affordable open access
• Lower telecommunication prices
• A wider choice of ICT infrastructure
• Enhances countrys economical growth
• Employment opportunities

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Thank You.
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(No Transcript)
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Background to Broadband Technologies

• DSL Digital Subscriber Line
• ADSL Asymmetric DSL
• HDSL High bit rate DSL
• VDSL Very high bit rate DSL

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Strategic Issues (1/10)

• Interference
• xDSL services over twisted pairs involves the
  utilisation of bandwidths much higher than would
  otherwise be used for voice
• Existing xDSL services should not degrade the
  performance of additional xDSL services
• Certain xDSL services can cause more interference
• Telkom SA decides to increase of optical fibre to
  customer access network hinders deployment of
  xDSL which require uninterrupted copper

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Strategic Issues (2/10)

• Interference insuring minimum performance
  benchmarks
• The regulator will need to produce a spectrum
  management guidance, which insures that the
  quality of service is not degraded.
• The regulator will also be responsible for the
  development of technical codes of practice in
  relation to the deployment of services in the
  county.
• The incumbent may be required to produce (to
  regulator) plans for the already deployed xDSL
  services .
• The incumbent also may be required to show how
  deployed xDSL services are going to be managed in
  the unbundled competitive environment.
• Specifications in relation to the copper pairs
  used by the incumbent should also be available to
  the regulator.

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Strategic Issues (3/10)

• Technical incompatibility
• What might technically hinder service delivery
  is
• Unavailability of good copper network in some
  areas

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Strategic Issues (4/10)

• What needs to be provided and known with the
  regulator
• The quality of the incumbents copper network ,
  this includes
• Any problems that are known in the duct system,
• Age of the copper pairs
• The material that the loop is made of
• Loading coils and other devices on the loop.
• The length of copper from the local exchange to
  customer premises.
• Distances of more that 3-5 KM can be a problem
• The incumbents plan to upgrade its network
• extending fibre beyond the local exchange towards
  the customer premises.

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Strategic Issues (5/10)

• Provisioning
• A process - new entrants orders LLU services from
  incumbent to connect end user premises to its own
  network
• Provisioning process
• Forecasting
• New entrants required to forecast their
  anticipated requirements
• Forecasting may be given in specified time period
  and updated on a rolling basis.
• Understand the consequences for the new entrant
• Underforecasting (demand exceeds forecast)
• Overforecasting (forecasts exceed demand)
• Ordering
• Detailing the main steps and timeframes
• In under serviced areas, what is the process to
  be followed to insure the construction of new
  pairs for the local loop.
• Charges
• In cases such as rejection or cancellation of
  orders

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Strategic Issues (6/10)

• Collocation key issues to be considered
• The claim by the incumbent that there is no space
  in the relevant exchange
• The application of overly onerous technical
  requirements on the competitors equipment as
  opposed to the equipment located by the incumbent
  itself
• The requirement by the incumbent that the
  competitor take a minimum amount of space or that
  the incumbent have caged collocation as opposed
  to cageless collocation
• The requirement that a competitor cannot
  interconnect with other competitors within the
  exchange or that if the two do interconnect the
  interconnections must be purchased from the
  incumbent

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Strategic Issues (7/10)

• Collocation key issues to be considered
• Discriminatory security measures
• The allocation of all site preparation costs to
  the first competitor regardless of whether all
  costs are attributable to that competitor
• Failure to allow collocation in adjacent
  buildings
• Lack of provision of information on space
  availability
• If new collocation arrangements have to be
  negotiated, can that be done in the multi-lateral
  forum or bi-laterally
• What is the provisioning lead-time on getting
  collocation space in an exchange building and
  what are the main steps?

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Strategic Issues (8/10)

• Cutover
• A process of moving customers line from the
  incumbent network to new entrant line
• Cutover plan should clarify the following
  issues
• The maximum timeframe for the cutover is to occur
• Hours during which cutovers will usually be
  organized
• There will be out of hours charges by the
  incumbent.
• The co-ordination mechanisms between the
  incumbents technicians and the new entrants
  technicians
• Reversal procedures for failure to activate
  service on the new entrants network
• Minimum cancellation notice for the cutover
  process to take place

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Strategic Issues (9/10)

• Local number portability
• T he relationship between the ULL ordering
  process and the LNP process needs to be known
• Charges among operators involved need to be known
• Fault detection and repair
• Fault reporting and repair process between the
  incumbents and new entrants need to be outlined
• Who is responsible for receiving end user fault
  reports
• How does the incumbent prioritize fault reports
• What if repair deadlines are not met

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Strategic Issues (10/10)

• Fault detection repair
• The process depends on whether the competitive
  carrier has
• Control of the entire loop or
• It is sharing the loop with the incumbent
• Where the incumbent is required to have contact
  with the new entrants customer to repair a
  particular fault
• What are the processes for co-ordination between
  the two parties and the customer
• How to ensure that the incumbent will not use the
  information to try and win back the customer or
  to disparage the new entrant