Mobile Number Portability: lessons from Hong Kong, China

There's a piece Court Hears Fight Over Numbers Used for Cellphones in today's New York Times about the battle to introduce mobile number portability in the United States. There are perhaps some lessons to draw from Asia, particularly Hong Kong, China. In this "mobile-mad" economy, over 90% of the population has a mobile and it probably has the most highly competitive mobile market in the world with 6 providers for slightly less than 7 million people. A few years ago (March 1999), I happened to be in Hong Kong the day the regulator, OFTA, introduced mobile number portability (MNP). You could barely walk around with huge lines to switch mobile providers flowing out of the shops and stalls (today they also hawk broadband from street stalls but that's another story...). A key reason that no mobile provider has yet been able to dominate the market is due to the high subscriber churn facilitated by MNP. Before implementing MNP, OFTA commissioned a feasibility study and a cost benefit analysis. This study concluded "A wide range of consumers will benefit from the MNP in Hong Kong. Mobile subscribers will be able to switch operators and avoid the costs and inconvenience associated with a number change. Competition in the industry will be heightened as a barrier to switching is removed, further benefiting residential and business users.

2:21:01 PM    Google It!    

OECD's Indicators for the Assessment of Telecommunications Competition

The OECD has declassified and made available its Indicators for the assessment of telecommunications competition (PDF).

• "Intensified competition in OECD countries’ telecommunications sectors calls for regulations proportionate to the level of competition in the market. If regulators consider there is full-fledged competition in a telecommunications market, they should lift regulatory interventions existing in the relevant market. Therefore, regulators need a yardstick that measures the true level and scope of competition. Regulators have not yet fully developed indicators for the assessment of telecommunications competition and thus have not reached a consensus on this issue. This report explores the concept of effective competition and the definition of a relevant market, and suggests appropriate indicators and parameters for the evaluation of competitiveness in the telecommunications markets."

1:51:48 PM    Google It!    

Towards an International Convention on Cyber Security

The Hoover Institution at Stanford University has an online book available entitled: The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terrorism. It includes a particularly interesting chapter entitled Towards an International Convention on Cyber Security (PDF) including draft convention text.

2:14:25 PM    Google It!    

Proposal for a European Network and Information Security Agency

The establishment of national and international cybersecurity "watch and warning networks" is gaining political capital among governments. The recently released US National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace (PDF) identified as one strategic initiative to "[f]oster the establishment of national and international watch-and-warning networks to detect and prevent cyberattacks as they emerge". In a related effort, the European Commission has also called for the establishment of a European Network and Information Security Agency (Word: English, French, German).

12:30:32 PM    Google It!    

New rules in EU aimed at telecom competition

[IHT] The European Commission issued rules Wednesday that will force national regulators from the 15 Union countries to give extra scrutiny to competition involving new communications technologies.

4:07:51 PM    Google It!    

Legal Intercept in IP Networks

[via Nanog]: Very interesting talk on legal intercept in IP networks by Jaya Baloo at the the HiverCon corporate security conference held in Dublin, Ireland on November 26th and 27th, 2002: Lawful Interception of IP Traffic in the European Context.

11:47:05 AM    Google It!    

US FTC to Hold Three Day Public Spam Workshop

The [US] Federal Trade Commission will host a three-day "Spam Forum" Wednesday, April 30 through Friday, May 2, [2003] to address the proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail and to explore the technical, legal, and financial issues associated with it.

11:58:21 AM    Google It!    

Klemperer: 3G Spectrum Auctions not Culprit for Telecom Industry Woes

Paul Klemperer, the Edgeworth Professor of Economics, Oxford University, advisor to the UK government on its spectrum auctions, argued in an article in the Financial Times in November 2002 that 3G spectrum auctions should not be considered the culprit for the telecom industry woes (PDF).

1:31:16 PM    Google It!    

Internet Global Early Warning Information System

Further to an October 2002 Computerworld article, today's Washington Post writes that the Bush administration is quietly assembling an Internet-wide monitoring center to detect and respond to attacks on vital information systems and key e-commerce sites, called the Global Early Warning Information System (GEWIS).

8:27:56 PM    Google It!    

Designing Next Generation Telecom Regulation

The World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies (WDR) have released their final report (PDF) on their 2002 dialogue theme: Designing Next Generation Telecom Regulation: ICT Convergence or Multisector Utility? (PDF). The report thoughtfully examines various alternatives being considered for next generation telecom regulation.

• "It is apparent that national telecom policy and regulation – both the regulations and the regulators – will play a major role in implementing structural reforms. The distinctive network and public interest characteristics of the information infrastructure will require a continuing proactive role for regulation if network development objectives are to be met, and the foundations prepared for the next generation Internet services that will support new network economies (Melody 1999). What is unclear at the moment is how direct regulation by independent regulators can best facilitate the achievement of these objectives. Should industry specific telecom regulators be redesigned as convergence regulators so they can more comprehensively and systematically address the full range of next generation Internet issues? Or should they be redesigned as multisector utility regulators so they can leverage synergies across infrastructures to promote the most rapid information infrastructure network roll-out?"
• "ICT convergence that is upgrading the capacity and capabilities of telecom networks to information infrastructures raises many issues that next generation policy and regulation in all countries must address. They cannot be avoided. Although the scope of regulation may vary among countries, and all responsibilities for regulation – e.g., electronic commerce, information security, consumer protection – need not be assigned to the telecom regulator, it is important that the specific role for telecom regulation in helping to manage the information infrastructure for the network economy be clearly defined, especially as many of these issues will require regional and international coordination."

In 2003, WDR's dialgoue theme will be Stimulating Investment in Network Development.

4:11:35 PM    Google It!