In my April report, I indicated that the role of the Secretariat would be developed during 2008 to inform those parties likely to be affected by the output of the Executive meetings. Our initial activity has centred on working closely with Ofcom to provide Executive views and feedback regarding a prospective NGN consultation by Ofcom later this year. It was recognised by the Executive, that whilst it could offer its opinion, that Ofcom could reject such advice and that NGNuk was in no way involved in the setting of policy.
The last two Executive meetings have therefore, almost exclusively, been focused on the opportunity of debating a range of issues that members of the Executive had suggested for consideration within the consultation framework. It is hoped that this input has assisted Ofcom in shaping its thoughts regarding the scope of any possible consultation.
The Executive have, over the past year, considered a number of commercial questions, relating to the out put of the commercial work group within NGNuk. These discussions addressed the underlying principles for any commercial framework supporting NGNs namely:
As this work progressed further the diversity of views increased as the group addressed the specific issues within the framework. It was recognised within the Executive that agreement across all members could not be reached. It was therefore agreed that the output of these discussions be documented and published. It is hoped that Ofcom will take account of this work in any future considerations regarding charge controls. The documents can be found under the Plan of Work/Commercial Work Group section of this web site.
I am comfortable with the progress we have made in my first four months as Executive Chairman, and am keen to build upon this over the remainder of the year.
