These new open networks are ‘end user’ rather than ‘network’ or ‘operator’ centric.  They are about people - linking men, women and children; commercial and non-commercial organisations; public and private institutions within the context of their physical communities; about deploying advanced digital technologies to support and enhance the work, life and play of those real communities and the individuals that comprise them; about increasing and easing connectivity and communications within and between communities in a manner that reflects the natural behaviour and inclinations of the individuals that comprise those communities.

What is clear is that open access local networks are not simply about ‘doing conventional telecoms things in a new way’ or by ‘someone else’.  Nor is it simply an issue of ownership and control being in the hands of parties other than existing telecoms operators.  These networks are, like so many other aspects of the information technology revolution in which the world is engaged, both shaping and being shaped by creative, innovative and adventurous end users and the institutions – both public and private – that seek to serve them.  What marks out this open access development as being particularly significant in the minds of many people is the fact that it underpinned by, and is shaped around, our ‘real world’ existing physical habitat.  Far from connecting individuals in a community with the ‘other side’ of our global village (as the Internet can), they can begin to reconnect individuals in a community with the other side of their ‘own village’.  It can be argued that this is of potential huge significance in the developed world where inner cities and urban environments are all too often loosing the social cohesion that is the hallmark of a civil society as the institutions which once provided this (e.g. the churches, clubs, family) decline in their significance.  It may just be that the emergence of high bandwidth open access networks will enable individuals in communities to discover new and enhanced ways of providing the essential connection and cohesion that makes ‘the city’ a civilised place to live.  So what are some of the defining characteristics of these networks?

Firstly, they have true broadband capacity.  This capacity is likely to be constrained only by the physical capability of the digital hardware/software that is deployed, rather than by some artificially imposed business model.  By the simple laws of physics, these new technologies will deliver a capacity that is way beyond anything that can be provided by existing copper-based local telecoms networks - where they exist.  In addition, as with the silicon chip, ‘Moore’s Law’ will massively impact the price-performance relationship of these technologies with “more capacity for less $” being the result for the foreseeable future.

Secondly, they serve a local geographic community ranging from a street or business park or housing block right up to an entire town or city.  It does NOT encroach upon the trunk and international networks of the conventional telecoms sector nor does it subsume local area networks within homes and office buildings – it is confined to linking the ‘physical points of presence’ in a community (invariably buildings).  Global connectivity beyond the community will continue to be provided by the Internet – access to which would be via one or more competing third-party service.  Likewise, the LAN within a home or office will remain totally independent of these networks.

Thirdly, these networks are, in one sense, a public utility for the information society.  They are intended for use by any party located within the community it serves: public and private, business and residential.  That does not necessarily mean that it needs to be owned and operated by the public sector but it does mean that in its legal structure and governance, whether publicly or privately funded and controlled, there are legal instruments and mechanisms to ensure that nobody within the community being served can be denied access to them. 

Fourthly, and probably the most critical, they are operated on an open basis.  That is to say, these networks are owned and controlled independently of any service or content which runs over it.   This affords anyone connected to the network to take or provide content or service from or to anyone they choose.  This means that anyone connected to one of these open access networks may, as time progresses, equally well be ‘providing’ content/services as ‘consuming’ them.  It is for this reason that ‘symmetrical bandwidth’ is so important – something not recognised in the current telecom model which is focused on the obsolete telephone network for local access.  Already, 60% of all internet traffic is reckoned to be accounted for by peer-to-peer [i] despite the asymmetry of the DSL local infrastructure over which most of it runs. 

The issue of the legal structure of these networks is dealt with in this Study, but it is important to stress that one of the key emerging defining characteristics of these local open access networks, is that they have a corporate governance culture and structure that gives importance to serving  the ‘common good’.   Put another way, these emerging local open access networks are structured and managed to ensure that the ‘benefit and value’ of broadband digital technologies devolve to end users to a far greater extent than is the case under the conventional business models of the current telco/ISP/cable industries. 

REFERENCES