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In this issue:
1. 5th Annual Global Symposium for Regulators, Geneva The fifth annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) was held from 8-10 December 2004. The meeting attracted over 350 participants from 106 countries, including regulators representing 77 countries, as well as 34 sector members and all existing regional regulators' associations. The meeting was very capably chaired by Kathleen Q. Abernathy, a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission of the United States. The meeting focused on ways to adapt and evolve licensing and regulatory structures to cope with convergence of information and communications technology sectors. The chairperson's report, all documents and presentations can be found here. This year's symposium consisted of four plenary sessions, focusing on multiple aspects of licensing and spectrum management, along with two simultaneous break-out sessions focusing on "spam" and broadband infrastructure. The GSR reached consensus on a set of Best Practice Guidelines for the Promotion of Low-Cost Broadband and Internet Connectivity. The document highlights the importance of regulatory and policy decisions in encouraging the growth of broadband networks and services that will improve lives around the world. They express a shared goal to create national regulatory frameworks that are flexible and that enable competition between multiple private sector service providers who may want to utilize a variety of technology platforms and delivery options. The symposium agreed that the views of regulators on such an important set of enabling technologies should be expressed to those seeking ways to build the Information Society. These Best Practices Guidelines will be submitted to the next phase of the WSIS. 2. Second Annual Meeting of Regional Regulatory Associations, Geneva The Second Annual Meeting of Regional Regulatory Associations was held 7 December 2004 in Geneva to discuss the topics of "Capacity Building" and "Resource Mobilization". The meeting was very ably chaired by Mr. Patrick Masambu, Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and Chairman, ARICEA (the Association of Regulators of Information and Communications for Eastern and Southern Africa). The meeting brought together regional associations of regulators from around the globe as well as international organisations and national administrations. The full report and documents can be found here. 3. Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2004/05
5. ITU Forum on Telecommunication Regulation in Africa "Licensing in the Era of Convergence" Kampala (Uganda), 3-5 November, 2004 The fifth Forum on Telecommunication Regulation in Africa (FTRA) was held in Kampala, Uganda, from 3 to 5 of November 2004. The FTRA was held immediately following the ITU Public and Private Sectors Partnership Forum for Africa. The FTRA included sessions on licensing in the era of convergence, the impact of convergence on existing infrastructure, technology neutral licensing and the pricing of spectrum in the era of convergence. Many of the authors of the 2004 edition of Trends in Telecommunication Reform: Licensing in an Era of Convergence presented their findings to the Forum and facilitated a dialogue on the impact of innovative regulatory practices in Africa. The Forum agreed on a series of recommendations that may be found in the final communiqué, available on the FTRA webpage. The joint ITU-IDRC Report Via Africa: Creating local and regional IXPs to save money and bandwidth explores how national and regional Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in Africa can be established to keep local Internet traffic local to both save money and improve Internet performance. The report was originally released as a discussion paper for the 2004 Global Symposium for Regulators. It was open to comment until 30 December 2004 and will soon be published on TREG. The report explores the practical reasons for implementing national IXPs, describes the people and technology issues involved in establishing IXPs, identifies ways in which the regulatory framework can be made more favourable to encourage the successful operation of IXPs and then examines how it might be possible to connect national IXPs so that data can flow between countries without needing to leave the continent. RRU has published a series of licensing case studies on the TREG website which look at innovative licensing practices in Canada, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. All case studies can be downloaded for free from the TREG website. UPCOMING Following a request of the 2004 Global Symposium for Regulators, the Regulatory Reform Unit will organize a series of Expert Dialogue G-REX Virtual Conferences on Spam, Broadband, Spectrum Management and Voice over IP. Please contact the Regulators Hotline if you are interested in participating in one of these Expert Dialogue virtual conferences. Internationally recognized experts in innovative regulatory practices will be invited to share promising practices with national regulatory authorities and policy makers. 9. On-line Dispute Resolution Training Following the success of the face-to-face European Workshop on Dispute Resolution held in the third quarter of 2004, the RRU and Human Resource Development Units are teaming up to provide two on-line training courses on dispute resolution, one for the Arab States and one for the Europe region in the first half of 2005. Letters of invitation to national regulatory authorities and policy makers will be sent in early February. These on-line courses are based on the joint ITU-World Bank Dispute Resolution in the Telecommunication Sector report. The course will be taught by Mr. R.U.S. Prasad, a former member of India's Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal. 10. Enforcement Seminar, Geneva, 8 March 2005 Building on the discussions that took place at the seminar for the Americas region on Current Issues on Enforcing Telecommunication Law, Policy and Regulation held last April in Brazil, it was decided to organize a global seminar on 8 March 2005. The one day seminar will discuss: the power to enforce (Regulators, Legislators, and the Judiciary); enforcement practices (monitoring, investigation, inspection, sanctions); and enforcing telecom laws and regulations (including interconnection, spectrum issues, dispute resolution, and license obligations). The seminar discussion will be a significant input to the ITU-D Rapporteur Group on Question 18/1 on Enforcement which will meet on 9 and 10 March (see below). 11. Regulatory Exchange Programme Resulting from the recommendations made during the 2004 GSR and the Second Annual Meeting for of Regional Regulatory Associations, a global regulatory "exchange programme" will be launched during the course of the year. This programme would allow regulators from one country to travel to another for intensive mentoring on a particular regulatory issue. 12. ITU-D Study Group 1 Meetings
13. Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) 2005 Following the gracious invitation of the Tunisia Regulator, Instance Nationale des Télécommunications de Tunisie, the 2005 GSR will be held in November in Tunisia, immediately prior to the World Summit on the Information Society. This year's GSR will focus on the current regulatory topics of Spam, Broadband Promotion, Spectrum Management and Voice over IP. The symposium will be preceded by a training workshop for top-level executives of regulatory and policy making institutions. 14. ITU - InfoDev Telecommunications Regulation Toolkit The RRU and InfoDev are collaborating on the development of an online resource on regulation.The Telecommunications Regulation Toolkit is a live resource for policy-makers, regulators, the telecom industry, and consumers. It provides a global overview of how telecom policy is best implemented with practical materials highlighting experience and results. The first module of the Toolkit, which covers the topic of "Licensing Telecommunication Services", will be launched in the first half of this year.
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