Regulatory and Economic Aspects of VoIP and Broadband Promotion Istanbul, Turkey - 29-30 November 2005

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. Between 60-70 guests were in attendance, including from within the regulatory authority of Turkey, as well as from various authorities in Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, 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, the Surmeli Hotel, and the Adim Turism Agency.

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. 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.

Further country-specific case presentations were volunteered by Mr. Marek Sarnak of Slovakia, and Mr. Vladimir Apostol of Romania.