IP Telephony : A Swedish Perspective

Abstract: The aim of this Masters Thesis project is to give the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency, Post- och Telestyrelsen (PTS), an updated view on I P Telephony relative to the Swedish consumer market. The basic questions were raised by PTS and the focus is on the relevant topics from the agency’s point of view. PTS is primarily interested in understanding what state IP Telephony is in and furthermore what IP Telephony can be used for in practice. What are the possibilities of different implementations and what will be their advantages and disadvantages? Despite being on the scene for many years, IP Telephony is now on the verge of a break through. With the creation of gateways between IP and PSTN, various IP Telephony devices, and with the introduction of SIP (described in RFC2543) as a standard signalling protocol, perhaps today, IP Telephony has a significant potential on the consumer market. Many argue that 2003 will be the year that IP Telephony blossoms. The fact that anyone can be their own operator, the role of the traditional operator versus the new operators, the separation of content and signalling transmission, as well as the efficient use of bandwidth are some of the topics covered in this report.</p> Due to the introduction of The Electronic Communications Act that comes into effect the 25th of July 2003, replacing The Telecommunications Act and The Radiocommunications Act, much of the focus in this report lies on regulatory issues. However, in order to get an insight in to the regulatory issues it is important to understand the underlying technology of IP Telephony as well as areas such as security, robustness, privacy, and emergency calls. Through a market analysis, an updated overview of the market for IP Telephony will be given, along with plausible future scenarios. This report will provide the reader with answers not by focusing on the theoretical details of the technology itself, but rather in terms of it’s practical use and limitations.