''The momentum for network separation: a guide to regulators'', a work by Ricardo Gonçalves and Álvaro Nascimento of Universidade Católica do Porto, has won the PLUG prize, a competition organised by APRITEL - Associação dos Operadores de Telecomunicações (Association of Telecommunications Operators). In addition five honourable mentions were awarded, one of them to the work ''Efficient use of existing telecommunications infra-structure and next generation networks'', by Cristina Aguiar, João Manuel Gonçalves and Paulo Goulart, staff at ANACOM.
The winning work, which received a prize of 10 thousand euros, proposed a methodology for the decision-making processes of regulators on the suitability of the functional and structural separation of the copper network in the current context of the rise of next generation networks (NGN).
Second place, earning honourable mention, went to the work entitled ''Competition and innovation in the telecommunications market'' by David Henriques. Besides the work of ANACOM's staff mentioned above, honourable mentions were also awarded to: ''How does incumbent's investment interact with Access pricing'' by João Vareda, ''Hidden items in per-second billing'' by Steffen Hoernig and Pedro Pita Barros, and ''SPAM - Unsolicited communications'' by Vasco da Gama.
The award ceremony took place on 12 November 2008, at Lisbon's Congress Centre. This event was organised by the Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications (APDC) and ended yesterday (13 November).
Further information:
- ''Separação vertical'' é o tema vencedor do PLUG 2008 http://www.apritel.org/fotos/editor2/APRITEL%20Anuncio%20Vencedores%2020081112c.pdf
