Presentations covered topics from changes to regulations and their impact on resellers, through to the key challenges and what channel businesses should prioritise when guiding customers through the transition.
The regulatory environment
Kicking off in a virtual format this year, attendees were welcomed by FCS CEO Itret Latif. The event launched into its first session, ‘regulatory environment in the all IP world’ with Ofcom’s Brian Potterill and Elisa Pruvost.
Pruvost set the scene for the IP migration landscape, highlighting its key drivers, the 2025 PSTN switch-off and the gigabit rollout. She explained Ofcom’s role in the migration: to protect customers from unnecessary disruption through updated regulations and guidance for providers.
Director of mobile network strategy Potterill then set out the key factors of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) and how the new protections will affect CPs.
He also mentioned scam and nuisance calls, describing them as ‘very much a priority’ and a problem that the telecoms industry should collectively work to solve through development of technical solutions, collaboration and raising awareness for consumers.
William Jones, policy advisor for the DCMS took to the virtual podium to outline the new Telecoms Security Framework and its progress through parliament, followed by David Halliday, leader of the OTA2, discussing the OTA2’s role in working with telecoms companies to manage migrations and the impact that will be seen across the entire supply chain.
Rounding off the session was Danny Preiskel, senior partner at Preiskel & Co, who spoke about the legal impacts of the new legislation on providers and what will be required of CPs going forward, including provision of consumption control tools for end users and changes to regulations around contract duration.
All IP building blocks
The second section of the event, ‘All IP Building Blocks’, focused on the ‘infrastructure building blocks’ that CPs will need in preparation for the move to All IP and how they should navigate the various challenges it presents.
Speaking first was James Lilley, director of managed customer migrations at Openreach. Lilley ran through the key milestones of the transition for Openreach including trials taking place from 2022-2024, giving examples of specific challenges such as customer reluctance, complex sites and product availability for which the trials aim to identify solutions.
Matt Walker, director of customer delivery at CityFibre followed with a presentation on the provider’s vision for the move and a ‘better by design’ full fibre infrastructure, updating attendees on the current progress of the rollout.
Next up was Steve Blackshaw, all IP programme manager at BT Wholesale, offering advice for CPs and resellers in moving from a legacy network to the new All IP portfolio, and some of the lessons learned from early adopters.
Blackshaw urged resellers and CPs to start thinking about their portfolio and how they are going to take customers on the migration journey, as well as considering customers’ edge use cases.
He advised that CPs and resellers create a service roadmap; have a clear portfolio with a go-to catalogue; include guidance on where to go for specific edge use cases, audit the base to understand what customers are using the network for; manage migration for customers seamlessly; and engage ‘early and often’.
“It’s quite scary I think, moving customers to new networks — but at the same time, there’s a huge opportunity for resellers and CPs that get it right,” Blackshaw said.
“You can increase your revenues, you can get deeper integration into your customers and upsell more, you can improve your bundling if you restructure your portfolio the right way like lego blocks.”
Speaking next were Lee Turner, head of industry engagement and regulatory affairs at Gamma, and Alex Mawson, product director at DWS, who provided their own recommendations and advised CPs to speak to customers as early as possible.
“Everyone [sitting] there with that 2025 date in their heads, or 2023 — it’s happening now,” said Mawson. “Things are moving, and if you consume WLR, speak to your provider and hopefully one that understands the business market, that understands the channel and the complex supply chain, and the need to be engaged in the All IP programme.”
The all IP future
The final section of the event, ‘the all IP future’, began with Richard Watts, country manager at VX Fiber giving an insight into what a digital future holds, followed by Michael Dargue, vice president of Cartesian. Dargue gave a presentation on market insights including current trends in networking and IT consumption, and the drivers of change.
Finally, FCS chair Dave Dadds and board member Martyn King concluded the event by going through some of the key concepts from the FCS all IP whitepaper. “The possibility of IP… the sky’s the limit, really,” said Dadds.
He added, “As a telecoms industry, in some ways we’re viewed as slightly slow to move sometimes — but in a new world, we’ve got to move quick.”