There is no precise definition of an OPLAN – nor should there ever be one. The use of the term OPLAN is not an attempt to create confusing jargon, but it has been adopted by OpenPlanet and increasingly by others because it so simply and precisely captures the essence of what it is - open : public : local : access : network.
It is now widely accepted that there are three fundamentally discrete ‘horizontal’ components or elements to a modern digital communications network, whether a small home or office network or the internet itself. These three elements differ considerably from each other on a number of criteria, making it commercially risky and uncompetitive to adopt a business model that vertically integrates across all three. This is the current ‘service provider’ model that lies at the heart of the world telecoms and cable industries and which has been sustained by public policy and regulation formulated around an earlier analogue paradigm.
- a network which, by being based on optical fibre or ‘open spectrum’ radio, has the potential for near limitless capacity and where the actual available capacity at any point in time is dictated by nothing other than the physical limit of the deployed technologies (i.e. no attempt to create value artificially by simulating scarcity)
- dedicated to serving a local geographic community (ranging from a street or business park to an entire town or city) which, by definition, already comprise a complex web of human socio-economic relationships which stand to be enhanced, enriched and even transformed by real time connectivity
- provides abundant low cost access to connectivity on an ‘end-to-end’ and symmetrical basis throughout that community
- is a ‘public utility’ in that it is available for use by any party located within the community it serves: public and private, business and residential
- affords global connectivity by being truly open access (i.e. ‘open’ for any carrier or service provider to connect to it like anyone else) which includes access to the public internet via competing third-party carriers and ISPs or any other legitimate means of connection
- does not differentiate between ‘content creators’ and ‘content consumers’ and their ‘bits’ – that is to say, is a truly ‘network neutral’ in the same way the internet has been since its inception
- provides infrastructure which is open to all and is owned and controlled independently of any service or content which uses it
- is structured, financially and legally, and configured with management and governance measures which serve the ’common good’ and assures the primary short and long term ‘value and benefit’ rests locally with users - as if end users directly owned the network themselves (which in some circumstances may be the appropriate governance model)
- end-user ‘access’ charges are broadly based on servicing capital and maintenance cost-recovery
- is funded by the private sector - not a backdoor to re-nationalisation or state control
Further information about all aspects of OPLANs and associated topics can be found on the OPLAN Foundation website. – being the non-profit educational foundation that is closely linked with OpenPlanet.