The UK Wholesale Standards Initiative, the brainchild of the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA), is proving to be a major boost for the Altnet sector by facilitating access by retail ISPs and aggregators to their wholesale networks.
By establishing clear commercial and technical frameworks, the Initiative enables every network operator to interconnect with aggregators and ISPs on consistent terms, ensuring that smaller and regional Altnets can benefit from the same market access opportunities as larger players.
The Wholesale Standards Initiative was created to allow the wider market to benefit from substantial investment in high-quality fibre networks and to purchase services from Altnets. In doing so, it will enable the major private investments in gigabit-capable networks to be fully unlocked. The Initiative will also address the challenges posed by fragmented footprints and avoid situations whereby each has its own commercial and technical requirements.
Whilst it started out as an INCA-led initiative it has grown into a cross-industry effort, involving some leading wholesale networks, retail ISPs, aggregators and solution providers.
At its core, the Initiative aims to provide all industry players with a simple, common baseline of language and understanding that can be used in framework contracts and supported by a detailed set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
To date, the Initiative has established an agreed Launch Product Framework and key foundations that enable a shared understanding of common aspects that have previously eluded the industry. There is now a shared definition of critical terms, such as ‘Ready for Service – Standard or Non-Standard’, alongside an agreed set of baseline Service Level Agreements (SLAs), allowing ISPs and aggregators to deliver consistent services across different networks without the need for additional adaptation.
As a next step, members of the Wholesale Standards Initiative working group will create a Common Care Framework. This is designed to ensure services are supported by consistent processes, as well as a smooth, predictable, and reliable service experience being available regardless of the underlying network provider. The Initiative has also developed an initial set of draft technical APIs to support these principles.
The Initiative’s developments will significantly increase the reusability of processes and systems for all players, helping to accelerate new product launches in an efficient and flexible manner.
For the first time, it will also provide Altnets and their investors with a valuable set of market requirements that they must support to participate in the marketplace, allowing them either to develop these capabilities in-house or rely on a third party to provide them.
The success of the Initiative has attracted the UK’s leading aggregators to participate in it, including APFN, Zen Internet, PXC and ITS. It’s also supported by a growing ecosystem of solutions providers, including Sonalake, Fibre Cafe, NetAdmin and CWP, who plan to embed the standards into their UK market solutions.
Max Fernando, Head of Regulation & Compliance at Glide, a board member of INCA and Chair of the Wholesale Standards Initiative, says: “The initiative has made significant progress in just a year and is well placed to boost the marketplace by enabling ISPs, aggregators and Altnets to interconnect on a common platform. This in turn helps to facilitate integration across the industry and add value and enhance the quality of service that the sector can offer to residents and businesses.
“The Altnet market is rapidly shifting from a focus on building networks to serving end users — and with it, wholesale standards need to evolve to ensure that the full potential of UK’s fibre footprint is unlocked. Previously, retail ISPs have pointed out the costs and complexity associated with needing to onboard new networks – the initiative aims to tackle these issues head on.”
Concluded Fernando: “The initiative will help the UK fibre market align itself to successful models such as those deployed in Spain and Sweden, where independent standards have driven efficiency and enabled aggregators to play a pivotal role in opening up alternative network footprints at scale.”
David Barber, Strategy Director, Zen Internet, said: “Full Fibre adoption is vital to the UK’s long-term digital growth and economic competitiveness. To accelerate that progress, the industry must make it easier for retail providers to access and deliver services over a wide range of networks.
“By supporting the development of wholesale standards, we’re helping remove barriers to entry and simplify integration, enabling aggregators like Zen to bring Full Fibre services to market more quickly and at greater scale, be it for the channel, UK businesses or home broadband customers. This kind of collaboration is essential if the UK is to fully realise the benefits of its fibre investment.”
