Wholesale Line Rental:

Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) allows service providers to rent telephone lines on wholesale terms from the incumbent telecoms operator and to resell the lines to the end user, enabling the service provider to provide a single bill that covers line rental and telephone calls.

WLR is being viewed by an increasing number of regulators as the logical enhancement to Carrier Pre-selection (CPS) to promote further competition in markets where the incumbent retains significant market power, particularly in the consumer and small business segments where additional direct competition in the local loop is unlikely. WLR severs the relationship between incumbent and customer, enabling the service provider to strengthen the relationship with its customer, thereby increasing spend and reducing churn.

Mott MacDonald Schema's experience has been that WLR implementation is a major undertaking. The product definition needs careful design to prevent service providers from being disadvantaged in the marketplace with a service offering that compares poorly to the incumbent's retail offering. Also the operational processes and associated support systems need to allow service providers to provide comparable levels of customer service if the long-term prospects of the service are not to be damaged. And all this must be achieved at a price that gives service providers sufficient margin at a competitive retail price.

Mott MacDoanld Schema's work on WLR implementation with the UK and Irish regulators has given us considerable experience of WLR market sizing, service definition and implementation. Examples of our work on WLR implementation include:

• Forecasting the size of the UK market for WLR on behalf of UK regulator Oftel
• Helping the Irish regulator Comreg to implement operational processes, billing and IT support systems for WLR
• Analysing the market for VPN and Centrex services in the UK to help Oftel to determine whether these should be included in the UK WLR service offering
• Advising a New Zealand service provider considering offering a WLR based service

Mobile Licence Auction:

Schema was commissioned by the Government of an Eastern European country to provide strategic advice on the deregulation process. Part of this policy was the award of new mobile licences.

Schema managed the award of the new licence. This included issuing invitations to tender, specifying the terms and conditions of the licence, evaluating the responses and making recommendations to the government on the most suitable bidder.

Sale of Fixed Wireless Access Spectrum at 3.4GHz, 3.6-4.2GHz and 10GHz:

Schema consultants worked with the UK Radiocommunications Agency to dispose of fixed wireless access spectrum packages at 3.4 and 10GHz. Schema has provided a range of advice on the project including:

• Developing the valuation methodology for the spectrum packages
• Defining the geographical boundaries of the licence areas and the number of licences within each area
• Valuing the licence packages and setting reserve prices, building on previous work on administrative pricing of the spectrum
• Determining the most appropriate selection process (auction or comparative selection) and working with an auction expert to define the structure
• Undertaking public and private meetings with potential bidders for the spectrum to build interest in the sale.