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European leadership in telecoms
How will Europe maintain global leadership in telecoms? Leading network operators, manufacturers, R&D organisations, and public institutions from all over Europe have found the answer: through increased co-operation. In January, 80 of their representatives met at Alcatel headquarters in Paris to plan a new, industry-driven European initiative for collaborative R&D in telecommunications. The name of this initiative is CELTIC, which stands for ‘Co-operation for sustained European Leadership in Telecommunications’. CELTIC is a proposal for a new EUREKA R&D programme dedicated to communication techniques, systems and services. The need for an industry-driven R&D programme Telecommunications is a vital driving force for increased productivity and economic growth. The sector is of fundamental importance to the full development of the knowledge-based society. To make the vision of a knowledge based society in Europe real, the European telecoms industry has to implement technological innovations and completely new, service-driven business models within the next few years. The amount of work the industry must do to achieve this is huge. If they fail, the negative economic impact could be severe – so for Europe, the stakes are high. To succeed, the relevant European players in industry and academia need to have significant R&D programmes. FP6 is not enough! It is particularly important to focus on specific applied research if the industry is to be able to develop and implement the necessary technology. This is vital if Europe is to keep the technological and economic leadership established through developments like GSM. The current downturn of the telecommunications business makes it very difficult to maintain R&D, especially applied research, at the level required. Today, the main objective of the European telecommunications industry is to maintain European competitiveness in telecommunications beyond the present business crisis. We must invest in research and development so that European companies will be well placed when the economic situation improves. If we do so, the European telecommunications sector will be in a reasonable position to respond to the economic upturn. If we don’t, obviously, we will fall behind. How to keep European telecoms competitive A new pan-European initiative in support of R&D in telecommunications must be launched, involving industry, academia and the public authorities. With the CELTIC Initiative, the major telecoms players in Europe have taken an important step towards a new pan-European R&D programme, which will go some of the way towards maintaining European competitiveness in telecommunications, as well as ensuring European leadership in the digital society. CELTIC is unique in that it will concentrate on a comprehensive system and services solution approach, which is a unique requirement of the telecommunications sector. If the telecommunications sector is not supported and successful in getting this system view correct from the start, the potential for advanced networks and services, to benefit society both economically and socially, will be much reduced. CELTIC is proposed as a EUREKA ‘cluster project’. Europe has proven that it can run major collaborative programmes leading to global leadership positions in the ICT area. The outstanding example of this approach in Europe is the development of the GSM standards and equipment. As a Eureka programme, CELTIC would complement existing Eureka programmes, the framework programmes of the European Commission, and the various national R&D programmes. The added value of CELTIC The unique role and the added value of CELTIC can be identified in the development of pre-competitive comprehensive ‘integrated communication system solutions’, including platforms and test vehicles. This concept will be at the core of a CELTIC Pan-European Laboratory, which will enable the trial and evaluation of service concepts, technologies, and system solutions. The CELTIC programme will encompass pre-development and experimentation of broadband and multimedia services, applications and equipment, including their control, operation, administration and management. The programme should bring the necessary support to the European telecommunications playground during the coming years, so that it successfully achieves the needed transition from an infrastructure and connection driven industry (at large today), to a services and applications driven industry. The objective is to design and perform experiments on integrated system solutions that complement the traditional segmented technology trial approach. CELTIC intends to deliver results that, after further specific development, will be directly transferable into products, services and applications that are in line with short-medium term priorities. In doing this, CELTIC is highly complementary to the medium to long-term approach currently addressed by the 6th Framework Programme for R&D of the European Commission. The CELTIC time frame The time frame planned for the CELTIC Initiative is five years. The budget required should be in the order of to 1 billion EUR per year, comprising of an equal mix of public funding and private investment. The objective is to have the first projects starting early 2004. A budget of 400 million EUR, i.e. about 200 million EUR of private investment and 200 million EUR of public funding, would be required in 2004 to be in line with this overall requirement. The founding members of the CELTIC Initiative are currently working with the public authorities of Eureka countries to define an agreeable budget to start the CELTIC programme by end of 2003. In this effort they are supported by a number of other potential participants in future CELTIC projects. CELTIC and Eurescom Many Eurescom members are already active within the CELTIC Initiative, and more are expected to participate in the near future. On behalf of these members, Eurescom is providing support for the CELTIC office, and we hope that this will become a formal arrangement once CELTIC is formally launched as a new Eureka programme. CELTIC will seek Eureka approval in October 2003. Further information about CELTIC The CELTIC initiative recently produced the ‘Purple Book’, which is the second official document of the CELTIC Initiative describing the technical content of the programme. This Purple Book has been compiled from contributions from a large number of technical experts who have worked together to define the priorities and outline a roadmap for the evolution of communication technologies for Europe. As many new contributions and project ideas will be gathered during the summer of 2003, the goal now is to release a second version of the CELTIC Purple Book in September 2003. More information related to the CELTIC Initiative may be found at www.celtic-initiative.org Please send us your comments on this article. |
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