Alan Spencer has worked in the telecommunications industry for over 30 years and has experience of all aspects of the subject - including design, standardisation, regulation, training, consultancy and project management.

He is a fully qualified Chartered Engineer and has worked as a consultant for BT, Cable & Wireless, Logica, Sky, BOC, Nortel, the Capita Group and O2 as well as many other companies in a number of different roles. He is the author of many reports on telecommunication and related IP topics as well as presenting in numerous conferences worldwide. He has also designed and presented many training courses on a variety of subjects and is a certified member of the Institute of IT Training.

Alan has worked for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in Sophia Antipolis where he helped write numerous European Standards and regulations. He has worked for the European Commission and advised current and future member states on EC Directives, telecommunication law and number portability, and has worked for the UNHCR is the selection of a vendor in the supply of a worldwide voice and data managed network. He has also worked for the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as the Technical Design Authority (TDA) for their fully-managed converged network.

Alan also works as an Expert Witness and has worked on a number of complex cases involving well-known public companies.

In the last few years, Alan has helped both BT (with 21CN), Cable & Wireless and Sky with their Next Generation Network (NGN) design and vendor evaluation process. Alan is engaged in helping NGN suppliers bid for new lucrative contracts, by helping with completion of the RFI/RFQ process as well as presenting the vendor's products to carriers and enterprises. Alan has also evaluated IP-PBXs and VPN products, on behalf of suppliers, so that the products can better meet customer requirements as well as providing strategic direction to companies, like the BOC Group, on their move towards converged networks and systems.

Many vendors are not aware of the real criteria that carriers regard as important. It may be compliance with IMS, 3GPP, TISPAN, MSF or SIGTRAN - or even compliance to the UK variants of H.248 or standards produced by the TSG committees. Alan is able to advise suppliers on this and other issues.

Where a supplier wishes to enter the UK market, Alan is able to act on their behalf in producing and making presentations in UK/British English; responding to RFI/RFQ/ITT requests and attending meetings with potential customers - as well as advising the supplier on applicable UK requirements and standards.

Alan has been involved with products from a variety of suppliers, including: Genesys, Siebel, Marconi, Ericsson, Cirpack, Alcatel, Siemens, Lucent, Sonus, Italtel, Operax, Newport Networks, Nextone, Convedia, Zultys, Cisco, Juniper, Nominum, Fujitsu, Tellabs, ECI, Nortel, Veraz, Ciena, Nokia, AudioCodes, Huawei, Kagoor and AcmePacket.