On the Regulation of Quality of Service Provisioning for Next Generation Networks in Spain and the European Union

The term Next Generation Networks (NGN) practically always refers to an all-IP multi-service core etwork connecting a variety of fixed and mobile access networks. In order to have a good connection with end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) levels across NGNs, technical and regulatory aspects have to be considered. In the article we analyze technical and regulatory matters related to the deployment of QoS mechanisms in NGN in Spain as a European Union (EU) member. Based on questions related to the possible regulatory framework in the EU and to the willingness of operators to interconnect, the paper describes four possible scenarios that could be useful to understand the situations that could arise in the future