WHITAKER ASSOCIATES
Washington, DC
16 December 2002

Third European Directory Marketplace Conference to Address National and International Market Competition

Whitaker Associates, a leading consulting organization in the Directory Services marketplace, announced that burgeoning competition in the European directory market will be a major focus of the European Directory Marketplace Conference 2003 (EDM03) being held on February 10th through 12th, 2003 in London, England.

The European Commission (EC) has determined that directory services are a significant tool for ensuring Europe's competitive status in today's global economy and has established the following directory requirements for European Union (EU) Member States:

  1. That subscribers have rights to entry in directories, that directories of subscribers must be made available, and that at least one complete directory enquiry (DQ) service must be available to all users;
     
  2. That subscriber information must be provided by organizations that assign telephone numbers in an agreed format on terms that are fair, cost oriented, and non-discriminatory;
     
  3. That directories and DQ service must be provided in a non-discriminatory manner.

A recent report, commissioned by the EC to study the directory marketplace, found that there is limited compliance with these provisions.  According to the report, in most countries directories and DQ services do not include all subscribers and there are many ongoing disputes between operators and directory services providers regarding access to directory data. The EC is reviewing this report and is expected to consider actions that might further their competitive objectives.

EDM03 will address these directory market issues with presentations by Philippe Vernet from the Information Society DG, Directorate A of the EC, and by Marloes van Caspel from Analysys, the author of the report. In addition, EDM03 will explore other changes and opportunities occurring in the European directory services arena and will bring together industry leaders and participants from directory service organizations in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

EDM03 is being held in London partly because the United Kingdom is becoming one of the most competitive directory marketplaces in the world. On December 10, the UK witnessed the transition to a more competitive marketplace with the introduction of DQ service on newly assigned 118xxx dialing codes. Service providers for these codes include British Gas Communications, BT, Core Telecommunications Ltd, The Number UK Ltd, One.Tel, Orange, and Telegate Ltd. Prior EDM conferences, held in Barcelona and London, attracted participants from over 50 companies and agencies representing more than 21 countries.

A number of key sponsors are participating in EDM03. Information Services eXtended, Inc. (ISx) (www.isxinc.com) has signed on as a Gold Sponsor.

Silver Sponsors include Fujitsu Invia (http://da.invia.fujitsu.com), INFONXX (www.infonxx.com), Philips Speech Processing (www.speech.philips.com), varetis AG (www.varetis.com), and VoltDelta (www.voltdelta.com).

Discounts are available for early registration for this conference.  For further information concerning EDM03, please visit www.whitaker.com or contact:

Steffi Wallis
Production Assistant
Whitaker Associates
7700 Leesburg Pike, Suite 109
Falls Church, VA 22043-2615
UNITED STATES
assoc@whitaker.com
Voice +1 (703) 506-1220, Fax +1 (703) 506-1221

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