Today all other services have to be “over the top” of the internet – that isn’t always ideal but there isn’t a choice. I’m thinking of games and media companies that are concerned about the quality of the services as they compete on the internet, and specialist services which aren’t able to reach their target audience because their “customers” don’t universally use the Internet such as health providers. With ALA games companies and the NHS could rent an additional VLAN as an alternative of delivering an “over the top” service; doing this they take control of performance and security, and don’t have to rely on the existence of a suitable ISP service. For this kind of service there is no need to provide a link to the internet.

In answer to your second question, the broadband marketplace is beginning to fragment as we move towards next generation services – nobody knows how far this fragmentation will continue but it is to one degree or another going to be a fact of life. This means service providers are beginning to find it difficult to offer the level of coverage they have come to expect and customers have less certainty over what services may be available in their area. The nascent wholesale market is a coming together of a significant number of the access network builders with some major services companies. Together they plan to create a wholesale market where the national service providers are able to access as many of the patchwork of next generation access networks as possible, regardless of their scale or location. More information about this will become available in the coming weeks as the process begins to turn from a concept into reality.