Public Policy Blog

This week, on Wednesday 25th, the Fundación Telefónica will host the presentation of the yearly report untitled “Information Society in Spain 2011″, its 12th edition.

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:

4G (or LTE – Long Term Evolution) is the fourth generation of cellular wireless technology. Some operators have already initiated their way to 4G worldwide. Telefónica O2 in UK is one of them and now provides the fastest possible wireless connections in parts of London as a trial.

Last November 16th, GSMA announced that 45 world leading mobile operators have committed to support and implement SIM based NFC solutions and services, including the most relevant worldwide operators such as China Mobile, China Unicom,  Telefónica and other leading European Operators, but also the three largest U.S wireless service providers, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, under [...]

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).

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.

As a yearly meeting, from the 11th to the 17th July, the Spanish City of Arts and Science, Valencia, will be hosting the XVth Anniversary of Campus Party and Telefónica is part of this relevant event! Telefónica will bring the technological part with IPv6 and LTE solutions, especially for the event!

During the Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, GSMA prepared a nice video for the opening session.