Public Policy Blog

At the Cable Congress Policy Session on 7 March, Georg Serentschy made some interesting remarks on the incentives for high speed broadband roll, which hopefully announce an era of a more investment friendly regulatory climate in Europe. Mr. Serentschy is the head of the Austrian Regulator RTR and he is BEREC chair for 2012. He [...]

We have identified three priority areas that regulators and policymakers will need to pay particular attention to during these months ahead. To be effective, any policy must allow sufficient flexibility at a national level, as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will be unlikely to succeed.

Many are the predictions those days in the Net concerning our sector and its perspectives for 2012, from how the telecom sector will evolve, to which services and technological trends will be the winners for next year, or how social networks will be positioned, what will be the IT “super themes” for 2012, etc…
This is a difficult and somersault exercise in a very dynamic and evolving sector such as the ICT & Telecom one. However, it is sure that some trends could be already detected.

Concerning the ICT public policy area, we could see the following issues as relevant as they are present in several international and public institutions agendas for 2012. Here are some of them:

The impact of broadband on the economy and the live of citizens is a reality already recognized at all levels, so regulators and policy makers need to promote strategies to ensure access to the new services and opportunities presented in this new digital world Since 2000, International Telecommunications Union – ITU -, the United Nations [...]

Today at 12h00, Fundación Telefónica is presenting in Barcelona the study “Mobile Communications and Economic and Social Development in Latin America” (Comunicaciones Móviles y Desarrollo Económico y Social en América Latina).

After the summer break, public policy issues are numerous for the ICT sector in this beginning of autumn 2011…Here is a brief overview of some of the main events and issues we will follow during the next weeks:

At an event on broadband connectivity organised by Erisa (the European Regional Information Society Association), Malcolm Matson, Director of Open Planet, explained his solution for the high-speed connectivity challenge in Europe. Open Planet is a company that promotes open public local access networks, which basically are structurally separated passive access networks. The management of such [...]

Between the next 5th and the 8th of September, Fundación Telefónica with other partners will host the 25th Telecommunications Congress, which on this occasion will be held under the slogan “Más allá de lo conseguido” (“Beyond Our Achievements”). It will be held, as every year, in the wonderful and historical Magdalena Palace, in Santander.

As announced in this Blog, during the last 18-19th of July, the XIV Summit of Regulators and Operators AHCIET REGULATEL was held in Santo Domingo. The Summit was untitled “Broadband: The Challenge for Latin America of inclusion and sustainability of networks” and I had the chance to attend it.

Like in previous occasions, the Summit was an excellent opportunity to meet and dialogue with regulators and telecom operators present in Latin American markets.

Thierry Dieu, acting Director of ETNO and media spokesperson of this association, has a broad experience as communication expert within the European Commission, both in Brussels and previosly in its delegation in Moscow, and as Communication Manager of the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA). He has been succesfully leading all ETNO media campaigns during the last years, achieving two nominations for the European Public Affairs best campaign award in 2008 and 2010. We from Telefónica (TEF) recently met with him, to learn more about ETNO and his views on ICT and the hot issues which are handled at this key association representing “Europe’s leading e-communications services and networks providers”.