• Preface
• Introduction
• Date Certain 2018 & Metrics
• Voice in 2018 - The Voice Cloud
• From a User's PoV
• From a Network Operator's PoV
• From Over-the-Top Provider PoV
• From Application Developer PoV
• From a Regulator's PoV
• Voice Cloud Requirements
• Addressing Public Interest
• Universal Availability
• Support for Emergency Services
• Legal Intercept
• Quality/Reliability/Price Tradeoff
• Interconnection
• Platform for Innovation
• Non-Requirements (e.g. fax?)
• Telecom 2018 Transition Plan
• What Is Already Happening?
• Legislative/Regulatory Roadmap?
• Technical Barriers to Change
• Long Tail of Non-Adopters?
• Strictly Transition Issues
• Resouce Re-use
• Plan for a Transition by 2018

Introduction

The Telecom 2018 Plan seeks to capture in one place industry knowledge about issues, opportunities, and best practices around the telecom industry's move to all IP networks.  The Plan will address both technical and policy implications of the transition.  The framing encompasses all information useful for completing the transition to all IP networks by January 1, 2018.

The Plan addresses as a foundation the question of a successor network delivering the voice services presently relying on the PSTN.   Contributors can expand content beyond voice services to include video, social networking, and text communication options to the extent of interest.   Contributed content enjoys no inherent authority beyond mechanisms of peer review associated with social production.   

Organizers of the project acknowledge the transition to all IP networks is already well underway.   The Telecom 2018 Plan provides a means to share lessons learned toward and facilitate the transition.  There exist many examples of technology transitions within the telecom industry as with the wireless sectors moves from 2G to 3G to 4G and beyond.  The novelty and difficult of the transition to all IP networks arises from the need to unwind or at least better understand the inter-dependencies between regulation and technology.

The Telecom 2018 Plan accepts contributions from registered users located anywhere in the world, so the project does not reflect a particular geographical context.   The status quo of regulation and to some extent technologies do vary from region to region.  This transition from local to global jurisdiction represents one of the major challenges.

The Plan organization in three sections addresses the roadmap destination from different points of view (Voice in 2018 - The Voice Cloud),  the resulting destination requirements (Voice Cloud Requirements), and details on how to move from the present to the future (Telecom 2018 Transition Plan).   The framing seeks to make room for new thinking to shape the communication future without completing ignoring the merits of the status quo.