Transcript A litiguous incumbent and a cautious regulator

A litigious incumbent
and a cautious regulator
and other reasons why R&E networking
is expensive in some countries
Marko Bonač
ARNES, Slovenia
[email protected]
Status in Europe
 EC document: Science, Technology and Innovation


in EU+ 2002:
“Candidate countries posses a huge potential
capacity to produce scientific and technological
knowledge.
Their integration in the European Research Area
opens new dimensions and opportunities in Europe”
The researchers all over the ERA would like to do
the similar work
There is a big gap in the state of networking
infrastructure for R&E between more and less
developed European countries.
The gap is big and
is becoming bigger
Comparing research network elements
in more and less developed European countries:
International capacity: 1: 1000
National links:
1: 5000
Why:
Do less developed countries spend less on R&E networks ?
Are networks more expensive in less developed countries ?
NREN budget per capita 2002
NREN budget per capita in 2002 (TERENA Compendium)
0,5 EUR/cap
1 EUR/cap
More than 1 EUR/cap
France
Czech Rep.
Ireland
Germany
Estonia
Portugal
Italy
Lithuania
Croatia
Spain
Latvia
Slovenia
Denmark
The Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
United Kingdom Finland
Switzerland
Luxemburg
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It is mainly dependant on size of the country and
not on its GDP per capita (as one would expect) !
NREN budget per capita/
GDP per capita

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






France
Germany
Italy
Spain
UK
(size = x)
Belgium
Finland
Sweden
Switzerland
(size = 2x)











Latvia
Lithuania
Estonia
Croatia
Hungary
Czech Republic
Portugal
Slovenia
Ireland
The Netherlands
Luxemburg
(size = 3x – 8x)
Networking is relatively more expensive
in less developed European countries
 GDP per capita in candidate countries is 25 to 70 % of


the EU average
Telecommunication infrastructure is missing
Prices for leasing infrastructure are high because
– telecommunication market is often not yet liberalized
– telecommunication market is too small for real competition
 Most of less developed countries are small – this
brings additional problems.
Running an NREN in a small country
is expensive
In a small country it is more expensive
(calculated per user) to provide the same level of service.
 Relatively more international capacity is needed
 Low capacity circuits are relatively more expensive
 Circuits so the same capacity are often more expensive
 The NREN needs the same effort to introduce a new
service
NREN external capacity (2001)
NREN
in country
 Germany
 France
 UK
 Slovenia
 Ireland
 Switzerland
 Luxembourg
external capacity in Mbps
per 1 million inhabitants
12
14
13
23
32
43
50
NREN external capacity
in Mbps per 1 mil inhabitants (2002)
 Italy
52
 Poland
62
 France
84
 Germany
118
 Estonia
142
 Slovenia
155
 Czech Republic 175
 Ireland
205
 Hungary
238
 Luxemburg
375
 The Netherlands 484
 Belgium
573
 Switzerland
548
 Finland
1135
Subscription to GEANT
in Mbps per 1 mil inhabitants in 2003
 Ireland
641
 Luxembourg 388
 Switzerland
342
 Slovenia
326
 Hungary
248
 Belgium
243
 Lithuania
172
 The Netherlands 150
 Croatia
141
 Czech Republic 120
 Greece
 Estonia
 Nordunet
 Poland
 Spain
 Italy
 UK
 France
 Germany
116
111
103
65
62
43
42
42
30
Average traffic received from GEANT
July 2002
Average received traffic per capita in
Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia, Greece,
Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Switzerland
was at least 6 times greater than in
France, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain
GEANT cost per 1 mil inhabitants
x = the cost for the cheapest country
 Germany
 United Kingdom
 France
 Italy
 Spain
 Poland
 Nordunet
 Rumania
(x – 4x)
 Greece
 Estonia
 Slovenia
 Cyprus
 Lithuania
 Ireland
 Malta
 Luxembourg
(16x – 57x)
Price for international circuit is not a
linear function of capacity
This graph applies to SDH,
for DWDM the curve goes even lower
1.200
price
per
Mbps
1.000
0.800
0.600
0.400
0.200
0.000
0
capacity
in Mbps
Circuits of the same capacity
are more expensive
For less developed countries
 Telecommunication market is often not yet liberalized
or
it is liberalized on the paper but not in the practice.
If the country is also small:
 In many cases there is only one operator
 There is less demand for high capacity circuits
 Telecommunication regulator has not enough staff (but
the problems are the same as in bigger countries)
What can be done (now) in less developed
countries for the realization of “equal
opportunities” in ERA ?
 NREN can enlarge its user community
(connecting schools and libraries)
– NREN can double its user community with 20 % additional funds
– Access outside towns could be a problem (ISDN, ADSL)
– Is this an unfair competition in the ISPs market ?
 The government can stimulate real competition in



telecommunication infrastructure sector
NREN can get more money from the local sources
NREN can get some support from other NRENs
NREN can get more financial support from the EC