mwakabaga, msiza and marwala5th international confernence on open access1 local loop unbundling: a...

Mwakabaga, Msiza and Marwala 5th International Confernence on Open Access 1

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

byTeddy Mwakabaga, Ishmael Msiza and Tshilidzi Marwala

School of Electrical & Information Eng.

Email: [email protected]

School of Electrical and Information Engineering

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

5th International Conference on Open AccessParadise Holiday Resort, Bagamoyo, Tanzania 14-16 November 2007

Mwakabaga, Msiza and Marwala 5th International Confernence on Open Access 2

Agenda• Introduction• LLU and ICT Services

– Affordability– Innovations– Awaking sleeping giants

• A way forward • Summary & Conclusions

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 customer’s 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.

Chitamu & Mwakabaga 5th International Confernence on Open Access 3

LLU Technical Overview


Incumbent Network

Laptop

Customers premises equipment

MDFBM

Local Loop(The last mile – copper wire)

MDF – Main Distribution Frame

BM – Broadband modem

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.


5th International Confernence on Open Access 6

LLU and ICT ServicesHow

Societies Benefit

?

Mwakabaga, Msiza and Marwala

New Entrants Roll


• New innovative solutions

• Affordable access

• Customers have more choice

• Number portability

• Quality services

• Reaching under serviced areas

• Alternative technologies

African’s World Contribution


Source: 2007 World Information Society Report: ITU

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

A Meeting Point


Incumbent and new entrants

Advertisements

Broadband subscribers

ICT, Services and

Applicatoins

Access with NP

Offering per operatorAttract subscribers

Delive

ring i

nnov

ation

s

Note: NP is Number Portability


A Good Picture



LLU Challenges• Regulatory challenges

– Implementation and disputes– Incumbent’s involvement– New entrants’ demands and promises

• New entrants– Obtaining information from incumbents

• Incumbents– Seen new entrants as parasites– Handling subscribers database


Success of LLU

• Depends on– A regulatory framework that supports LLU– Cooperation between incumbent and new

entrants under regulated environment– Regulator’s convincing muscle



Good Results


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 country’s economical growth• Employment opportunities

Thank You.


Background to Broadband Technologies

DSL family Downstream Upstream Line support Loop pairADSL 1-6Mbit/s 16-640Kbit/s Baseband +

TelephonyOne copper pair

HDSL 2Mbit/s 2Mbit/s No baseband telephony

Two copper pair

VDSL 13-52Mbit/s 1.5-2.3Mbit/ Baseband + Telephony

Only over short copper loops < 500m

• DSL – Digital Subscriber Line

• ADSL – Asymmetric DSL

• HDSL – High bit rate DSL

• VDSL – Very high bit rate DSL

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


• 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.


• Technical incompatibility – What might technically hinder service delivery

is • Unavailability of good copper network in some

areas


• What needs to be provided and known with the regulator• The quality of the incumbent’s 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 incumbent’s plan to upgrade its network– extending fibre beyond the local exchange towards the customer

premises.


• 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


• 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


• 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?


• Cutover– A process of moving customer’s 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 incumbent’s technicians

and the new entrant’s technicians– Reversal procedures for failure to activate service on the new

entrant’s network– Minimum cancellation notice for the cutover process to take place


• 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


• 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

mwakabaga, msiza and marwala5th international confernence on open access1 local loop unbundling: a...

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