Paris, 16 February 2000
The first meeting of the "Unbundling - access to the copper pair" working group, chaired by Alain Bravo of Alcatel, was held on 10 February.
Jean-Michel Hubert, president of Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (ART) opened the meeting, reminding members that the purpose of the group was to define the technical and pricing conditions which will allow experimental access to the copper pair and commercial readiness by late 2000. The principle of the group had been approved unanimously on 22 December 1999.
This first meeting was attended by some thirty operators and industrialists. It established the organisation and set the timetable for the group's work.
In addition to the plenary group, chaired by Alain Bravo, four other subgroups were formed:
- experimentation subgroup, chaired by France Telecom
- operational procedures subgroup, chaired by ART
- technical specifications subgroup, chaired by Lucent Technologies
- pricing methods subgroup, chaired by ART