Public Policy Blog

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.

On 11 January 2012, European Commission adopted the 2012 Communication on e-commerce and other online services that aim to double the retails online sales and the weight of Internet sector in European GDP. The Communication identifies 5 priorities and is accompanied by a 16 goals action plan. As I already wrote in my post on Cloud [...]

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.

On 14 December, Commissioner Kroes met a small group of industry representatives concerning Cloud Computing policy. As members of this initiative amongst others, Oracle, Google, SAP and EuroCloud presented her a set of 10 Recommendations on how to boost Cloud services in Europe.

On december 12th the new issue of “Regulatory and Economic Policy in Telecommunications”, the Regulatory Journal of Telefónica, was presented in District Telefónica, and as usual a workshop was held where contributors had a chance to present their articles and debate, this time around the theme “Reviewing the Economic Foundations of Regulation in ICT markets”.

Throughout the debate it became clear that Regulators, confronted with a growing concern that the current European regulatory model might be hindering private investment and innovation in broadband coverage and applications, must adapt their strategy to a new environment, and device incentive schemes that are not easily compatible with their overarching goal, which arguably remains preserving a very large number of alternatives for end users.

Under the slogan “Beyond what has been achieved” (“Más allá de lo conseguido”), the 25th Meeting of Telecommunications in Santander, recently announced in this blog, did not disappoint its attendees.

We attended a comprehensive review of the developments of last year, and above all, a detailed analysis of the crossroads which the sector is at, provided glimpses about how the initial conclusions are emerging.

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.

I recently sat down for a chat with Robert Mourik, Telefónica’s Director for Regulatory Policy Europe, to talk about the issue of international roaming. Here is a transcript of the interview…