At the end of a year of discussions between a consortium of European PTTs, proposals to instigate a Managed Data Network Service in Europe look set to go ahead. The PTTs, who have been collaborating under the auspices of the CEPT’s Commercial Action Committee have just concluded the second phase of an investigation into the practicality of providing a commercial data operation. A business plan is now in place with the target date for live operation set for the end of 1989, given that enough PTTs make the plunge and promise financial committment. And this make-or-break deadline is just two months away, in September. If the service gets the thumbs-up, it will compete in the burgeoning market for provision of value added network – or data if you prefer – services in Europe. For the last five or so years, as the pressure to provide international and European data links between companies has grown, an increasing number of ‘value added’ suppliers has emerged. For the main part, their commercial awareness has not been matched by the PTTs, allowing them to gain a competitive advantage. Deregulated UK It is this advantage that the CEPT committee has set out to erode. Companies that currently satisfy the commercial demand for value-added nets in the fully deregulated UK environment include both providers of the physical networks themselves, such as Computer Sciences Corp, and of services, such as the GE’s INS, Istel, Midland Bank’s Fastrak, and IBM. Currently the UK is estimated to be around 18 months ahead of the rest of Europe in implementation. Data is carried over lines leased from the national PTTs. In most cases, the leased line approach is preferred to setting up a data link using the public packet switched data networks. Packet net use would also necessitate setting up an X75 gateway, increasing costs and delays and lowering throughput. The proposed pan-European agreement is now entering the third phase of its development. Phase two, which culminated in the production of a report published last week in Rome, was a five month long investigation based in The Hague into the technical and functional specifications that would be required for operation of the service. The remaining phase is intended to be for marketing and promotional plans to be drawn up. The PTTs also have to formalise the format of their co operation as well as reaching final agreement on it.
Mike Sheridan, head of international telecommunications at Ireland’s Telecom Eireann and chairman of the PTT group described the Managed Data Network Services plan of providing users with a one-stop shopping service as one of the biggest challenges yet attempted in Europe. According to the Deutsche Bundespost, the services provided will be very much user-led. Target users would probably be small companies not in a position to set up their own networks who would want to use services set up on the back of their own PTT and formed part of the overall PTT structure. The service is intended to run on the X25 networks already installed by most European PTTs, with support for de facto standards such as IBM’s SNA available from day one. Problems arise with incompatibility of these networks due to a lack of standardisation in implementation of the network layer protocol. There are also differences in network management architectures and data formats, making overall network management a real problem. Another considerable barrier that has to be overcome is that of how service users will be charged. Reaction from other network services suppliers to the proposals is both guarded and faintly incredulous. The overall response is along the lines of we’ll wait and see if it really happens. But both service providers and users would be delighted to see a true pan-European network in operation. John Thorpe, commercial director of GE’s INS commented that the only reason for instituting private networks in the first place had been because of the lack of quality of networks set up by the PTTs. Phil Harris of Computer Sciences, which already has a substantial network based on NCR Comten p
rocessors running internationally, commented that if PTTs were finally realising that customers wanted an integrated service, then the message is finally getting through. Although it may reduce the advantage already gained by existing suppliers and network providers, the end benefits to the user have to outweigh any disadvantages. As a major company with considerable international involvement (25% of its business is based on the continent), ICI already has a fairly extensive network set up, but Bob Falconer, network services manager, welcomed the announcement. He commented on the current difficulties that surround the provision of an international data link: at the moment if you want a link between two countries, you end up with half a line from one PTT and half a line from the other.
Half a line Half a line is no good to anyone, of course, and it means that you get two bills and have to pay two organisations. If they do get their act together, it has to be a good thing. At the moment, the situation is that there are links and gateways between individual networks but there is no real managed network. The managed network service can be seen both as a necessary pre-cursor to the introduction of a full ISDN service and as a vital stage in the European Community’s move towards Open Systems Interconnection. Given the poor overall quality of the existing X25 networks throughout Europe, it seems that the plans, although laudable as a concept, will require an immense input in terms of human resources as well as time. Some countries, such as France with its Transpac network, are already further advanced along the path to X25 implementation than others. Although the agreement itself is somewhat nebulous, with all participating PTTs being careful not to speak out of turn and the appointed CEPT committee spokesmen apparently taking advantage of the holiday season to refrain from comment, there are already existing agreements between various European PTTs on data transmission: a Scandinavian Telecommunications Systems consortium was formed last summer to approach the problem, and France and West Germany are currently holding discussions and working out how best to involve private companies in co-operative ventures.
