INA Academy has successfully completed the training workshop on “Envisioning the Future ICT Ecosystem”. The workshop was addressed to Policy Makers, Regulators, Corporate Executives and Managers dealing with regulatory and business issues. The workshop was held at Hotel Mogren in Budva, Montenegro over the period 16 - 18 June 2010 and was kindly hosted by the Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (EKIP).

The participation in the workshop has been very high with attendants coming from W. Europe, S.E. Europe and Balkans. The total number of attendants exceeded 35, the majority of whom coming from NRAs, ICT institutions and organizations, as well telecom operators and vendors. It is believed that the whole spectrum of the ICT industry has actively participated in the workshop, meeting and/or exceeding initial expectations.

Throughout the three days of the workshop several interesting presentations and discussions took place. All participants, as indicated above, engaged into very insightful and thought-provoking debates that assisted into developing some overall directions on the subjects examined. As it is well understood, it is rather hard to reach tangible and specific conclusions in the underlying areas that have been thoroughly addressed, since any conclusions are greatly dependent on market and country’s respective characteristics and aspirations. However some overall directions/recommendations have been concluded. These are summarized below :

• Policy makers and regulators are requested to review all existing regulatory levers, in light of the migration to next-generation networks. Hence, universal service obligations, IP inerconnection, content protection, access to infrastructure, wholesale pricing should be reviewed, taking into consideration that new access technologies and new services become available in the marketplace. A coordinated approach is required in order to mitigate possible «bottlenecks», as also experienced in the case of coper networks unbundling, over the past decade.

• A harmonized, pan-European appoach is required with regards to the transition to digital broadcasting. There is a lot of discussion lately on the optimal use of the «digital dividend», which refers to spectrum released in the UHF band that is currently occupied by analogue transmission. Definitely, optimal use is left to be defined by national policy makers and regulators, considering which spectrum allocation will yield to greater benefits for end-users. However, as also experienced in other cases (e.g. GSM and UMTS technologies in the mobile telephony), adopting a harmonized approach on a European level, can result in extra benefits for both countries and consumers, derived by the economies of scale enjoyed by telecommunication operators and vendors. So far, it seems that some European countries are focusing on running auctions, for allocating released spectrum, providing the opportunity to industry players to decide on the optimal use. Other countries, however, are examining the case of allocating spectrum directly for mobile broadband use, as lower capital expenditures achieved in these bands can lead to lower pricing, for the benefit of end-users. Overall, policy makers and regulators are requested to initiate discussions and consultation processes with all interested parties, in an attempt to conclude to the optimal solution, safeguarding consumers’ interests in the best possible way.

• State-aid support should be initially focused on bridging the digital divide, by providing the opportunity to all citizens of the country to access broadband services. This recommendation is also in line with the recently published EC guidelines and rules on state-aid support in developing broadband networks. In this context, technology neutrality and open access principles should prevail, allowing invloved entities to deploy the best-possible solution, while in parallel warrantying specific speed rates and quality of services (QoS) indicators, for all citizens. For commercial viable deployments, it should be left to operators to decide on the optimal technology applied (e.g. FTTC/VDSL or FTTH solution), based on end-users’ needs and business case attractiveness. However, even in the latter case, regulators should intervene to ensure that a level-playing field is secured for all operators in the market.

• From a policy and regulatory point of view, convergence in the telecoms and media sectors raise a number of issues. A regulator and policy maker are concerned with the general societal importance of convergence policies, the balance between benefiting from industrial synergies and the problems of media concentration, and access to networks and content. Other issues are related to the infrastructural levels (equipment / hardware and transport / software), where the overall question is to what extent it is possible to subject all infrastructures to the same regulation. At the content level, there are a large number of issues that have to be resolved, including the question of whether all content areas can be treated in similar ways. Other questions deal with privacy protection, security, consumer protection, intellectual property rights, and illegal information. Furthermore, there are concerns regarding the separation of regulations of infrastructure and content and whether a converged regulator is more suitable for managing the new converged environment.

View the Workshop Agenda here.