Daiwa EuroTelcoblog No. 33, Friday 19th March, 2004: Get organized - ITSPA is Europe's first voice-over-broadband industry association (original email blast 10:28 AM Friday, 19th March, 2004)

Get organized - ITSPA is Europe's first voice-over-broadband trade association
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On Wednesday this week, we received a press release from the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) of the UK, formally announcing its formation. As far as we are aware, it is the first industry association to come out of the voice-over-broadband (VOB) space in Europe. Previously, we have had contact with a couple of companies planning VOB launches in the UK, but we must confess to being pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of newcomers (13 members in all) willing to stand up and be counted on the regulatory issues at this early date, and we wonder if the rest of Europe has similar numbers of service providers ready to come out of the woodwork. Indeed, we wonder how many others may be lurking in the UK itself (we understand that at least one new member was previously unaware of the organization, and the organization was unaware of it, until recently). Given the issues raised in the OFCOM meeting (see EuroTelcoblog No. 31), we think the ITSPA will be looking to work proactively to persuade OFCOM of the need to adopt a light touch, and of the essential requirement for geographic numbering in fostering competition in the voice market. We look forward to following up with ITSPA members as the regulatory framework around VOB takes shape, and will update as appropriate.

Contact information: info@itspa.org.uk or sip:111@itspa.org.uk

Current ITSPA members

Call UK (www.calluk.com)
ET Phones (www.etphones.net)
Gossiptel (www.gossiptel.com)
Gradwell dot com (www.gradwell.com)
Idesk (www.idesk.com)
Imass Telecom (www.imasstelecom.com)
Intervivo (www.intervivo.net)
Magrathea (www.magrathea-telecom.co.uk)
Mistral Internet (www.mistral.net)
Speak2World (www.speak2world.com)
Telappliant (www.telappliant.com)
Telco Global (www.telcoglobal.com)
T-Strategy (www.t-strategy.com)