http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/groups/nts_focus/notes/nts_271108

NTS Focus Group – 27th November 2008 – 2.00 pm Ofcom

Agenda item (1) - Introductions

Attendance:
Mike Barford  Tiscali
Geoff Brighton Ofcom
Kath Embleton  BT
Lesa Green KCom
Sean Hartley BT
Clive Hillier Ofcom
Justin Hornby C&W (Chair)
Dirmuid Jennings Reality Telecom
Andy Martin  IV Response
Steve McGeary  Via-Vox
Laurent Pariat C&W
Sandra Reid VirginMedia


By telephone
Will Goodall  Flextel
John Kelly  Gamma Telecom
Bart van Besien J2 Global
John Hudson Verizon
Simon 4D Interactive


Apologies:
Catherine Gerosa Invomo

Agenda (2): Update / progress report on the current 'live' NTS related consultations / investigations: (Ofcom/All)

Review of Regulation of Premium Rate Services
Geoff Brighton (Ofcom) gave an update that publication is now expected to be January and February next year.

General Condition 14 Enforcement Programme
Attention was drawn to the recent competition bulletin in relation to this enforcement programme. The bulletin extended the programme for three months but this is now drawing to a close as those companies that had requested extra time have now informed Ofcom that they are now compliant with the regulations.

Agenda Item (3): 0870 Statement and Dispute

Geoff Brighton indicated that the 0870 target date for publication remained as being before Christmas. Drafting is well advanced but publication may be after Christmas. Publication of the statement will probably correspond with a draft determination on the 0870 dispute.

Will Goodall asked about the implementation period to be given in the statement. Geoff indicated that this would be specified in the statement but that it certainly would not be the 18 months that was originally provided, particularly as the changes had now been over two years in the making and should have been taken into account by now.

Andy Martin voiced his concern that as the 0870 changes are reliant upon GC14 enforcement there can be no confidence that they will achieve Ofcom’s pricing transparency goals. He voiced concern about the closure of the GC14 enforcement programme (see above) as in his view mobile compliance was particularly poor. Andy indicated that he had written to the GC14 case leader on the subject. Clive invited Andy to speak to Ofcom after the meeting.

Agenda Item (4): 0871 Statement

Clive indicated that this document is to be expected next week or possibly the week after.

Agenda Item (5): NCCN908 & Porting Differential

The group was asked for comments regarding NCCN908, but had no comment to make at this stage.

Justin Hornby acknowledged BT’s note regarding the porting differential which had been circulated to the group ahead of the meeting. Laurent Pariat asked what the commercial implications of call trapping were and whether these should be addressed on a bi-lateral or an industry working group level. Whilst it was acknowledged that it could not be assumed that every operator can call trap or indeed that the traffic warrants it, Laurent pointed out that BT already call trapped geographic traffic at the switch and questioned whether BT were able to do it. Sean Hartley indicated that people within BT were looking into the issue and that the issue may be the volume of traffic to the IN.

Andy Martin commented that the volumes for a number of operators will not be large enough for it to be an issue.

Kath Embleton suggested that it should be raised at the next Porting Commercial Group meeting.

AP Nov8_01: Lesa Green to raise the issue at the next Porting Commercial Group Meeting.

...

...

Agenda Item (6): VAT Announcement

Sean Hartley said that BT Retail were passing the recently announced cut in VAT through to consumers. BT were concerned this might not be fully consistent with the numbering plan as they were not pricing according to the rates as set by the terminating operators in relation to the 0844 range which are specified with VAT included. BT has approached the Ofcom Numbering team for guidance.

Geoff and Clive agreed to take the issue away and to discuss with the Numbering team and in particular to look at the possibility of implementing price points excluding VAT.

AP Nov8_02: Geoff Brighton to raise Numbering Plan issue internally.

AP Nov8_03: BTRetail to confirm the outcome of their discussions with the Ofcom Numbering team and how the changes are to be applied.

Agenda Item (7): CLI Integrity

At the last Focus Group operators were asked to report back on the level of CLI integrity issues they were experiencing. Andy Martin saw it as a particular issue numbering in the 100’s a month, originating largely from VOIP operators. If these numbers are presented as being international calls it has significant billing implications, the main issuing being fraud such as PBX attacks.

Concern was voiced at how hard this type of activity is to eliminate from a network as the CLI can be altered at each step of the call. Dirmuid Jennings saw it as being a result of slack controls on the way CLIs are issued in the first place. Laurent Pariat saw the issue more as being a direct result of BT’s different UK and international rates for 0844 and 0871 as it is easy to spoof a CLI. Will Goodall also saw blank CLIs as a similar issue, particularly from overseas.

Geoff Brighton asked how this could be taken forward? Will expressed the need for a reliable routing indicator and asked whether there was something in the C7 signalling that could be used. Unless a flag was added to calls made from abroad the situation could get worse. NICC are writing NGN interconnect standards, is there anything that could be used from this work?

AP Nov8_04: Justin Hornby to raise the issue with NICC

Laurent Pariat asked if it was legitimate for BT to have different 0844/71 tariffs for internationally originated traffic. There is a clear potential for fraud and he questioned the legitimacy of such an offering that is not based on a domestic offering. Laurent also highlighted the disadvantage for any operator not using BT for call termination.

Sean Hartley responded that rates on 070 are also differentiated and that it has not been a problem before. Although he did acknowledge that traffic levels were much lower on 070. He also pointed out that international call termination would be through BT Global Services.

Will Goodall asked if BT’s End to End connectivity obligations applied to BT Group as a whole. Kath Embleton stressed that there were no regulatory obligations on BT and Clive Hillier said the thought that BT’s End to End Connectivity obligation would not apply to calls originated by foreign carriers.

Sean Hartley indicated that BT had wanted to avoid the complexity of numerous rates and to keep a simple single rate. Laurent acknowledged that but said he would have expected a rate closer to the current 0844 offering and not drastically lower. With 0870 the rates are the same and therefore similar problems are not occurring.

Date of Next Meeting:

The meeting next meeting will take place on 22nd January 2008, commencing at 2:00pm, at Riverside House, London. The periodicity of meetings for 2009 has been extended to eight weeks with the exception of September in order to avoid the holiday period. Due to a smaller room capacity is now 18.



22 January - Room 1.03

03 March at 1:30 as the room (1.09) is only free until 3pm.

30 April - Room 1.03

25 June - Room 1.04

03 September - Room 1.03

29 October - Room 1.03

10 December - Room 1.03

Summary of New and Outstanding Actions:
AP Nov 08_01 Lesa Green to raise the issue at the next Porting Commercial Group Meeting.
AP Nov 08_01 Geoff Brighton to raise Numbering Plan issue internally.
AP Nov 08_03 BTRetail to confirm the outcome of their discussions with the Ofcom Numbering team and how the changes are to be applied.
AP Nov 08_04 AP Nov8_04: Justin Hornby to raise the issue with NICC.

[end]

idb wrote on Mar 28^th, 2009 at 2:32pm:

Agenda Item (3): 0870 Statement and Dispute Geoff Brighton indicated that the 0870 target date for publication remained as being before Christmas. Drafting is well advanced but publication may be after Christmas. Publication of the statement will probably correspond with a draft determination on the 0870 dispute.

I can only assume Geoff was talking about Christmas 2009 then. ::)


Quote:

Clive invited Andy to speak to Ofcom after the meeting.

Presumably he was offered a seat at the top table at the next Ofcom Annual dinner if he promised to keep quiet on the matter in future. :-/