These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. UK Telecoms CGI Special Edition These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. UK Telecoms CGI Special Edition by Alan Nunn and Andrew Palmer These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. UK Telecoms For Dummies®, CGI Special Edition Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate Chichester, West Sussex, www.wiley.com © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. For information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book, please see our website http://www.wiley.com/go/ permissions. 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ISBN 978‐1‐119‐28575‐5 (pbk); ISBN 978‐1‐119‐28576‐2 (ebk) Printed in Great Britain 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Publisher’s Acknowledgments Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Project Manager and Development Business Development Representative: Editor: Chad R. Sievers Felicity Whyte Executive Editor: Katie Mohr Dummies Marketing: Jennifer Webb Editorial Manager: Rev Mengle Production Editor: Vasanth Koilraj Authors’ Acknowledgments We want to extend our thanks to all those people who have either knowingly or unknowingly contributed to this book by helping to clarify understanding and correct errors. Particular thanks go to Ian Dunbar, Huw Evans, Ben Kirk and John Hicklin for reviewing the drafts diligently and suggesting improvements, for Stefania Bortolotti for keeping us focused, and for Chad Sievers at Wiley for his editorial input and support throughout the process. These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Introduction K Telecoms For Dummies, CGI Special Edition, is the U11th in a series of guides produced by CGI. It introduces the telecommunications business (telecoms for short) to those readers who are less familiar with it or to those readers who may be focused on a particular part of the business. It isn’t an in‐depth technical tutorial, but is intended to give a broad understanding of this rapidly changing industry, which delivers services everyone uses daily and probably never thinks about. Whatever your background and understanding, you should come away with something new, even if it’s just the latest in the CGI series that you have been collecting! About This Book The UK telecoms business is fairly complicated. You probably own a mobile phone or two, and you probably have broad- band at home. Have you ever wondered about what goes on behind the scenes when you make a call? Or how businesses provide complex services over the Internet? If you have, this book can help. UK Telecoms For Dummies, CGI Special Edition, isn’t an in‐ depth guide. In fact, plenty of textbooks cover the area in greater detail. This book is an overview of the UK business – a who’s who of the brands you’re likely to come across and some of the history behind them. It also gives some insight into the current changes and thoughts on how the UK tele- coms business should respond. Our main reason for writing the book is to give you a good understanding of the business and the future direction, so you can make better decisions as a customer or as a decision maker within the business. Use it as a starting point to do more research and ask some deeper questions. These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. 2 UK Telecoms For Dummies, CGI Special Edition Foolish Assumptions We’ve made a few assumptions while writing this book. They are as follows: ✓ You’ve a rough idea about UK telecoms as a user, and you’re aware of some of the products the end-users might buy, either at home or in a business context. ✓ You’re probably working somewhere in the business and want to have a broad appreciation of how the parts of the business fit together. Maybe you’re in a new job and want to grasp how UK telecoms work. ✓ You’re interested in how the business will develop and want to understand more about some of the technologies, so you can respond to them. You may even be responsible for driving some of the big changes and want some help. Remember: We use telecoms to refer to the business as a whole, and Telco when we talk about a telecoms company. Icons Used in This Book To make navigating to particular information even easier, these icons highlight key text: These points are important to keep in mind. With a tip, you can benefit from the experience of industry experts. It highlights potential pitfalls to be avoided. This icon points out technical, nonessential information that the casual reader may want to skip. These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Introduction 3 Where to Go from Here This book is intended as a short, sharp intro to the key com- ponents of the UK telecoms market and should help you to talk with others in the industry with a new-found confidence. As with all For Dummies books, you can dip in and out as you like or read it from cover to cover. If you require any more information, visit www.cgi‐group. co.uk/telecommunications‐media and feel free to email us at [email protected]. All For Dummies guides have a shelf life, but that’s particularly true of this fast‐moving industry. For example, the UK recently voted to leave the EU (known colloquially as Brexit). Until the UK actually leaves, all the current legislation stands. Over time, it’s likely to change. In some cases, it will make sense to continue to operate to EU standards, for example to benefit from scale and consistency of technical interfaces. In other cases, the government of the day may choose to create new UK standards. By the time you read this book, some of its contents may be outdated. You’ve been warned. These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. 4 UK Telecoms For Dummies, CGI Special Edition These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Chapter 1 Understanding How the UK Telecoms Business Started In This Chapter ▶▶Glancing at the industry’s history ▶▶Identifying the different companies involved ▶▶Surveying today’s landscape ▶▶Predicting what will likely happen next his chapter gives a bit of a history lesson, but please stick Twith it. We weren’t keen on history at school, but later in life we realised how important it is to understand how the telecoms industry got to where it is today. Seeing how the industry evolved gives you some great hints about how things may change in the future. Read this chapter from your own perspective, and keep your eyes open to the future, because technological change can often be jumpy. In Chapter 8, we talk about what we think will happen next, because it’s helpful to have a view, even if it’s wrong. Otherwise, you’ll just be following what everyone else is doing, which isn’t fun and isn’t always great business. When you understand how the industry got here and where the industry has been, everyone can be much better prepared for the future. Comprehending what may be possible puts you in a better position to think about where you want to make the future happen.