Public Policy Blog

The workshop organized by ETNO and ITU last month, in the premises of Belgacom in Brussels, was attended by more than 100 delegates from European and US industry and also by a few European government representatives, some representatives from the European Commission. Amongst the speakers were several US industry and officials, and an operator but [...]

As you all know, the review of the ITRs is a key issue in the ICT policy agenda for 2012 and highly debated in the international arena. Therefore, the association of the European Telecommunication Network Operators (ETNO), in co-operation with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), have announced a workshop entitled ‘Revising the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) – Preparations for WCIT 2012’ that will gather a range of high level speakers from across the globe, including speakers from the ITU, ISOC, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, USA and Telefónica, between others.

The Spaniard, Asier Arranz , 27, has won the first Green ICT Hackathon event organized by Telefónica and the ITU in Barcelona, which also coincides with the Mobile World Congress being held in that city. The contest awards the best ideas for green ICT applications that promote “Sustainable Energy for all”. The application, for which [...]

Next week, from 27 February to 29 February, the GSMA will host more than 140 delegations from governments and international organisations at the Ministerial Programme, part of Mobile World Congress 2012. Now in its eighth year, the Ministerial Programme aims to provide a platform for high-level dialogue between governments, regulators and the leaders of the [...]

The current international telecommunications are regulated by an International Treaty signed by 173 countries in 1988, when international telecommunications services in most countries were provided by monopoly, government-owned carriers, and services were predominantly voice. Since then, the telecommunications’ world has experience a transformation in hardly 20 years which is difficult to imagine: markets have deregulated, [...]

Coinciding with the United Nations’ celebration of the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”  , the ITU and Telefónica are announcing two initiatives for coming up with innovative uses of ICT to help meet the UN’s goal: the first Green ICT Hackathon, i.e. a marathon of green ICT development, that will be held on [...]

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:

According to the UN Population Fund, probably at the end of this month, the World will reach the incredible number of 7 billion of people living on planet Earth….

And if we have a look at the ITU statistics, one third of the world´s population is currently online and there are currently more than 6 billion mobile subscriptions….

Amazing numbers describing the situation today, but how will be our World, our society just in less than ten years time?

This month of September, Telefónica received, for the second year in a row, the highest evaluation in the telecommunications sector in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which shows to 551 institutional investors with assets of 71 trillion Dollars the transparency and performance of companies in the subject of climate change. This achievement means the recognition [...]

The ITU has come up with the excellent idea of inviting all leaders of the ICT sector for one week to discuss the contribution of ICTs towards a low carbon economy. This meeting, called the ITU Green Standards Week (5-9 September), is the most important one of the year since it will determine the sector’s [...]