Open network architecture : Journey to an unknown destination?

Open network architecture (ONA) has been developed as a technological solution to the regulatory problems of a multi-user, multi-operator telecommunications environment. The USA has been the originator of this concept, which may be paradigmatic for similar developments elsewhere such as open network provision. Close inspection of the philosophy behind ONA reveals its essentially unsettled nature. Far from achieving an uncontestable solution to the problem of regulating enhanced network provision, it has in a sense encouraged an increased factionalism within the industry. This central lesson of the US experience is germane to parallel developments in Europe and elsewhere.