Presentation: We are Living the Future –Today!
Mr Kemal Huseinovic, Chief, Department of Infrastructure, Enabling Environment and E-Applications, ITU/BDT
Building Blocks for Smart Societies in a Connected World: A Regulatory Perspective on Fifth Generation Collaborative Regulation (Presentation)
Author: Sofie Maddens
The purpose of this paper is three-fold. First of all, it defines the role of the ICT sector in achieving smart societies, ICTs being the foundation for the transformation across society and the economy, i.e., in health, education, utilities (transport, railways, roads, electricity, water and sanitation), and various industries/manufacturing, e-government services, e-commerce, entertainment, environmental issues. Secondly, the paper provides a high-level overview of the different regulatory frameworks in place that stakeholders have to comply with and which provide the framework to protect consumer rights (telecom and broadcasting regulation, competition law, utilities regulation, consumer protection law, etc.) and identifies commonalities, differences, areas of regulatory overlap, duplication and potential areas for collaborative regulation. Thirdly, the paper defines recommendations for collaboration to enable the deployment of smart societies, in particular on (1) the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders and in particular regulatory authorities, and their respective mandate; and (2) the regulatory measures/framework needed to foster the deployment of smart sustainable societies. |
Emerging technologies and the global regulatory agenda
Authors: Kathryn Martin, Kelly O’Keefe and Logan Finucan This paper surveys recent developments in technology and explores their implications for telecommunications and spectrum regulators. The ICT community is striving to bring robust connectivity to all corners of the globe, which is helping drive both innovation and ways in which technologies can be used to improve economic and social development. New means of connectivity plus enhanced architectures promise improved coverage, greater capacity, more efficient use of spectrum, and more flexibility for effective delivery of the ICT services. In turn, technological innovations are unlocking new applications, such as those composing the Internet of Things (IoT) and the emerging Smart Society. The prospect of constant connectivity and complex interconnection of devices is also shaping private-sector business models. Providers of telecommunications services are moving fast, investing in future systems, and exploring new commercial opportunities with other industry sectors as they try to find their place in a new ecosystem that demands flexibility to meet changing demands. Increasingly, new classes of companies (not just those previously thought of as “technology” companies) are developing new capabilities and developing innovative products and services that rely on new connectivity and data services. These changes are placing increasing demands on spectrum resources, with implications for spectrum management practices. New platforms – principally 5G (IMT-2020) as well as others, such as high altitude platforms (HAPS), or NGSO satellite constellations – will need new spectrum resources in order to reach their full potential. Regulators must be familiar with these evolving technologies, understand their spectrum needs, and ensure that their own spectrum management practices are sufficiently nimble to adapt while protecting existing services. |
| The race for scale: market power, regulation and the App economy (Presentation)
Authors: Simon Molloy and Scott Minehane The app economy, over the top services and the sharing economy are all new names for a set of phenomena that represent a new episode of growth of the global ICT industry. This paper defines the app economy is defined as the sum of all economic activity, products and services, required to deliver app functionality to end users via mobile broadband services. The authors first look at the economics of the app economy and come up with a qualitative and quantitative economic methodology to analyze the contribution of ICT digital services and apps to the economies of developed and developing countries. The app markets are evolving rapidly and all the regulatory targets are moving. The challenge is to adopt more collaborative regulatory measures where the applicable regulation on all market players is converged, coherent, promotes competition and provides incentives to invest and be innovative. A conservative approach adopting only as much regulation as is obviously necessary and giving markets the opportunity to both innovate an attempt to find solutions to meet consumer needs, would seem to have considerable merit. Harmonizing regulations between new and old businesses is desirable and arguably necessary as all industry sectors are transformed. |
| Maintaining trust in a digital connected society
Author: Douwe Korff
The paper seeks to provide a basis for discussion on how to maintain trust in a connected digital society. It does not seek to provide answers to the numerous questions and challenges relating to the global smart society, but it will explore major areas that deserve attention, with some very tentative suggestions about how progress could be achieved at the global regulatory level. More in particular, the paper will discuss the legal frameworks and regulations that apply to the processing of the personal data which lies at the core of the digital connected society. It looks at privacy and data protection rules (and at the differences between these concepts); at two core areas affecting trust and security in the digital environment: national security, public security and cybersecurity, and cross-border trade agreements in globalized seamless world; and at the roles and responsibilities of regulators in all these fields, and the relationships between them. |
