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In this issue:
1. Global Symposium for Regulators Forges New Broadband Vision The sixth annual Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR), held in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia from 14-15 November 2005, gathered more than 350 participants from 110 countries to develop a new regulatory framework to promote broadband deployment and access in developing countries. Recognizing that wireless broadband technologies have great potential to help bridge the digital divide, the global community of regulators agreed to a set of 'best practice guidelines' for spectrum management aimed at promoting broadband access. "The 2005 GSR best practice guidelines are an important contribution to the World Summit on the Information Society," the 2005 GSR Chairperson, Mr. Ghodbani, said when agreement on the guidelines was reached. The four-page statement embraces the principles of minimum necessary regulation, minimizing barriers to entry, allowing broadband providers to begin operations on a small scale rather than requiring national rollouts, allocating spectrum for community or non-commercial use, adopting lighter regulatory approaches in rural and less congested areas such as flexible regulation of power levels and the use of simple authorizations for market entry and recognizing the role that both licensed and unlicensed spectrum can play. The complete text can be found here. This new regulatory framework is a 'less means more, old meets new' approach. Less regulatory intervention means more business opportunities. Time-tested regulatory principles such as transparency, technology-neutrality and open competition will be applied to new technologies and to the new regulatory issues they raise. A series of GSR Discussion Papers on broadband provisioning, the role of regulators in promoting broadband, Voice over IP (VoIP), spam and spectrum management were issued for the global gathering of regulators to spark a common understanding of the key regulatory issues of today's broadband environment. These discussion papers are available here. 2. Third Annual Regional Regulators Meeting (ARRM)- 13 November, 2005, Hammamet, Tunisia The third ARRM attracted over 60 participants from various regulatory associations. This represented a significant increase from previous meetings. Under the chairmanship of Mr. JP Morgan, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Jamaica, a very interactive session ensued. Arising from presentations made from various associations, it emerged quite clearly that regulatory associations, like regulatory authorities were at various stages of development. Also, whether by design or default, their objectives were broadly similar and geared towards a commitment to capacity building, harmonisation of policy, regulatory guidelines and common positions. "One thing is evident - regional regulatory associations are carving a niche in the landscape of regulatory governance in the assistance they provide to their member organisations in meeting regulatory targets while providing a forum for regional cooperation" noted Mr. Morgan. In this meeting, tangible milestones on the road to effective regulation were identified. Members noted the need to optimize the usage of information available from the ITU. In addition, they endorsed the continuation of training and urged that it be escalated to policy makers. Regional regulators re-committed themselves to continue playing a leadership role in fostering co-operation among themselves and with regulators, policy makers and development partners. For more information, click here. 3. Effective regulation in a broadband world : Executive level training for ICT regulatory authorities, 12-13 November 2005 The first Executive level training organized by the BDT took place from 12 to 13 November 2005 in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia at the kind invitation of the Instance Nationale des Télécommunications of Tunisia. While the world community of regulators now counts 140 members, it is not just about creating a regulator, it is about how a regulator can ensure effective, efficient and timely regulations in an era of fast changing technologies and innovation, to enable a broadband world. This training programme was intended to provide CEOs and Board Members with a detailed picture of the regulatory issues at stake and tools to address the upcoming challenges in an effective manner. More than 65 Chief Executives and Members of the Board coming from 52 countries participated. Nearly ninety percent of the participants expressed a high level of satisfaction and the wish to continue such training. The topics proposed for future training included: IP networks, next generation networks, convergence and related regulatory issues. The success of this training programme is owed to the very able leadership of Professor W. Wigglesworth with the active and sound support of Mr. M. Terrab, currently Manager of the infoDev program and former Director General of the Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications (ANRT) of Morocco. The training material and more information can be found here. 4. ITU-infoDev ICT regulation toolkit unveiled at WSIS launch pad The ICT toolkit was officially unveiled by BDT Director Hamadoun Touré and World Bank Vice President Katherine Sierra on 16 November. The aim of this initiative is to create an evolving resource designed to address complex regulatory challenges emerging from a rapidly evolving ICT industry. The objective is to provide comprehensive best practice guidelines to facilitate a smoother transition towards regulatory reform, especially for developing countries. "Good policy and regulation is a critical element of access to ICT and this toolkit is most valuable as a way to strengthen the capacity and increase the knowledge sharing of policy-makers and regulators around the world," stated Ms. Sierra. The toolkit contains modules touching on core regulatory aspects of licensing, spectrum management, pricing, competition and interconnection, legal and institutional aspects of regulation and new technologies and their impact on regulation. For more information, click here. 5. Expert Dialogue G-REX Virtual Conferences on Spectrum Management On 29 September 2005, ITU BDT ended its current series of G-REX virtual conference by hosting its fourth and final session on spectrum management, as the last of an Expert Dialogue series requested by the 2004 Global Symposium for Regulators. The series initially began on 28 February 2005 with an initial introductory session on spectrum management, focusing on the nature of the resource, defining terms and reviewing the traditional methods of managing spectrum at both the national and international levels - including the shortcomings and pressures for reform. The second conference was held on 17 March 2005 and was designed with particular attention to providing information on wireless technology for non-engineers. The third session, held on 25 April 2005, was designed to complete the introduction to spectrum-related technology for non-engineers, and to continue to address Interference issues. The fourth and final session was an attempt to bring these prior events together, by providing a forum upon which participants could present and discuss the spectrum management reform activities they are presently undertaking or considering in their respective countries. Professor Dale Hatfield, co-author of the 2004/2005 ITU publication Trends in Telecommunication Reform and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications at the University of Colorado, moderated the two hour conference, which included the participation of 18 countries. Prof. Hatfield moderated the previous sessions as well. Four separate presentations were given by various specialists, including Mr. Jerome Louis of Mauritius, Mr. Juan Pablo Velasquez of Guatemala, and Mr. Brian Miller from New Zealand. A further presentation was given by Mr. Bob Jones and Mr. Adrian Foster - both of McLean Foster - on their recent work on the infoDev Toolkit. This was for the benefit of updating participants on recent ITU/World Bank infoDev activities relevant to the regulatory sphere. Each presentation was followed by a Q&A period. The diverse materials and subjects presented proved to be interesting to all. They included reviews of country ICT authorities, details about public consultation procedures, decisions for various bands (particularly for 2.5 Ghz in Mauritius), reserved vs. liberalized bands, spectrum licensing information (as equivalent to property right), various aspects of commercial spectrum allocation, management right experience, the case of ‘commons’ areas, and about taking initiative for self-financed services. This information has been posted and is available here. Future virtual conference series will focus on spam, broadband, and VoIP. 6. European Regional Seminar on Regulatory and Economic Aspects of VoIP and Broadband Promotion The European Regional Seminar on Regulatory and Economic Aspects of VoIP and Broadband Promotion for Central Eastern European countries (CEE), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Baltic States took place from the 29 to 30 November 2005, in Istanbul Turkey at the kind invitation of the Turkish Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. 56 guests were in attendance, including from within the regulatory authority of Turkey, as well as from various authorities in Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Slovak Republic, and Ukraine. The conference was formally opened by Dr. Tayfun Acarer, Director of the Turkish Telecommunications Authority, and chaired by Dr. Ayhan Beydogan, in conjunction with the participation of Mr. Valery Timofeev, Area Representative from the Moscow Office of the International Telecommunication Union. The events of the conference were facilitated and supported by the highly efficient and helpful staff of the Turkish Telecommunications Authority. Discussions, which were simultaneously translated into Russian/Turkish/English, focused on the topic of regulatory and economic issues related to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Broadband, and various cases were presented by experienced regulators and consultants from within the ICT sphere. Some of the main questions considered included: How are VoIP and broadband defined? What are the main technologies? Are these threats or opportunities for the marketplace? For consumers, services providers and regulators, what are the economics behind VoIP and Broadband applications? What effects will these have on tariff and pricing issues? Presenters Prof. Reza Tadayoni, Mr. Olli Mattila, Mr. Sameer Sharma, and Mr. John Moroney undertook the formidable task of carrying discussions for a half day each, over the course of which extensive inter-disciplinary ground was covered. Further country-specific case presentations were volunteered by Mr. Marek Sarnak of Slovak Republic, and Mr. Vladimir Apostol of Romania. Presentations drew from a variety of technical, policy, regulatory as well as academic spheres - as conference participants were presented with excellent explanations of the architecture and definitions of Broadband and VoIP, the impact of VoIP on the work of traditional telephony providers, related frameworks for conducive policy formulation, as well as very diverse and interesting practical examples of deployment from which to learn. The sixth Global Symposium for Regulators was the venue for the annual 2005 G-REX Awards ceremony. Hotline Moderator Susan Schorr presented the awards on behalf of BDT Director Hamadoun Touré. The Global Regulators' Exchange (G-REX) was created to foster a regulator-to-regulator exchange of best practices. Annual awards are given to recognize those regulatory authorities that most actively support G-REX. Awards were also given to regulators that have just recently begun participating to encourage them to continue to support G-REX in the year ahead. This year's winners represented a wide range both geographically and in terms of ICT market development. Awards were given to the communications regulatory bodies from Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Hong Kong (China), India, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, South Africa and Turkey. Congratulations again to all the winners and thanks to all the G-REX users who have gained or given knowledge to G-REX during this past year. We'll look forward to seeing you again next year on G-REX. Until then, best wishes for the holiday season!
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