BELTUG Update JULY 2010

Lobbying
1. BELTUG Survey: Be heard – and maybe win a champagne breakfast!
2. BELTUG/INTUG meeting with Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda
3. August 1: Lower tariffs for F2M - Time to talk to your fixed operator!
4. BELTUG exclusive! Simbox simulator: do you still need a Simbox?
5. BELTUG paper on flat rate now available
6. BELTUG/INTUG challenge Vodafone and Orange
 

Information and vision
1. BELTUG paper on corporate policy email, internet and GSM
2. Tariff alert: Inform your mobile operator and roamers about the cut-off limit for mobile data roaming – New EU rules since July 1st.
3. Blackberry security: Should you be worried?
4. New presentations, case stories and reports available
 

Networking 
1. BELTUG welcomes new members 
2. BELTUG Member Forum
3. Day out: Trip to Ghent with BELTUG and your partner

Agenda
  

By taking only 5 minutes of your time to fill out our survey, you can make sure your voice is heard, and your priorities included in BELTUG’s action plan 2010-2011. They will also be reflected in the 10 days of job-specific courses - combining information sessions, interactive discussions and papers - offered over the year by BELTUG.
And what’s more, you have the chance to win a great Bongo Box for a champagne breakfast for two, just by filling in and returning the survey! So why wait? Over 195 companies have already returned the survey: don’t miss out on your chance to be heard. 

Commissioner Kroes was delighted with her meeting with an INTUG delegation that included both INTUG/BELTUG and European business user representatives. Danielle Jacobs, General Manager of BELTUG and Vice President of INTUG, described how Ms Kroes welcomed the delegation’s overview of the barriers that prevent the full benefits of the EU single market being felt.
Ms. Kroes even asked some of the delegates for an immediate written opinion on the topic of the challenges posed by the lack of standards, for her to use in her next meeting that day. She also requested ad hoc updates on critical issues as they arise - outside of the regular Commission consultations -, commenting that input from business users and organisations like INTUG/BELTUG is key to her work. To the report and the Position Paper. 

After years of complaints about the high tariffs for fixed-to-mobile (F2M) calls, BIPT has drastically reduced mobile termination rates (MTRs), effective this August 1. The MTRs will be progressively lowered the next 3 years: 

How will this impact you? Make sure to contact your fixed operator.

As soon as the lower MTRs become active, BELTUG will of course check whether the decreases benefitting the telecom operators are being passed on to our members.
 

4. BELTUG exclusive! SIMbox simulator: do you still need a simbox?

The changes in MTRs will affect companies in many different ways. Lots of companies have been using SIMboxes to reduce expensive F2M costs. But SIMboxes have disadvantages, and with the tariff reductions, do you still need them?
BELTUG and Tam Tam Consulting have put together, EXCLUSIVELY for our members, a SIMbox simulator that can help you decide if you still need your simbox(es).  By taking the time to fill in your data in the on-line simulator, this tool can give you a comparison of the costs with and without the simbox.
The SIMbox simulator will be up and running on the BELTUG website at the beginning of August. 

5. BELTUG paper on flat rate now available

6. BELTUG/INTUG challenge Vodafone and Orange

On June 22, BELTUG/INTUG organised a meeting with European-level representatives of providers Vodafone and Orange to discuss the international communication market. The starting point of the discussion was the BELTUG/ INTUG position paper on Mobile Services and the Multinational Customer - A Dysfunctional Market.  The event was very well-attended, highlighting the importance of this topic to our members.

The representatives from Vodafone and Orange also answered questions from the attendees, about the likelihood of ever reaching  ‘one-stop shopping’, international contract negotiation and tariff plans, and the true “global” player versus the “bundler” of dissimilar local services and 3rd party suppliers.
 

We want BELTUG members to be the best informed ICT decision makers and professionals.

With the universe of communications evolving so rapidly, it is important that corporate policies keep up with the vast variety of changes. BELTUG has just published its updated paper on corporate policy for GSM, Internet and email usage for employees.

This paper has received a lot interest and addresses many of the concerns of companies in the face of the increasingly complex technical, behavioural, tax and legal issues surrounding business vs. private communications. On June 15 at the Member Forum, BELTUG presented a summary of the changes to the position paper in 2010, in everything from mobile voice and data, to fiscal impact, to information sharing and Unified Communications.

Our comprehensive and updated paper (90 p.), available in French and Dutch, is free for BELTUG members, and costs 295€ for non-members. Reminder: a one-year membership for BELTUG is 315€ (only 20€ more than the cost of the paper): maybe it’s time to consider the benefits of membership?

With so many members happy to share their case stories with us, we are very pleased to have lots of new presentations and reports for you to view on our website:

BELTUG challenges CERT – Report and Presentations
BELTUG challenges Avaya on Nortel - Report & Presentation
International Communications Management and BELTUG Challenges Orange and Vodafone Presentations
BELTUG brainstorming SIP Trunking – Presentations
BELTUG VIP Evening: Organisations in search of a new balance: innovation is a battle field. Wanted: the 3-D manager - The Challenge of Change for the Belgian Regulator - BELTUG's commitment to innovation: Some things never change
X-change: WAN architecture for a central site connected to dozens of small independent sites- Presentation
Member Forum on Corporate Policy on GSM, the flat rate discussion – Presentations

And take a look at the BELTUG cases : TVH Forklift Parts, Vandemoortele, Vanheede Environment Group, Nexans, Puratos, Ricoh, CPM, The Brussels Airport Company, Public Service Foreign Affairs and FOD/SPF Social Security.
 

Our Member Forum and Summer Cocktail on June 15 was a rousing success, with members representing over 80 companies and organisations attending! BNP Paribas Fortis shared its own experiences in reworking its corporate mobile communication by developing a set of ‘profiles’, while BELTUG presented the updates to our Corporate Policy paper. This was followed by a stimulating debate on flat rates, which definitely put everyone in the mood for our Summer Cocktail. See what you missed – or didn’t, if you attended – with a look at the pictures.