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Flexible, light-touch, tech-neutral regulation is the key to
driving global ICT service uptake and innovation
World’s largest annual gathering of tech regulators and policy experts
encourages
complementary cross-stakeholder partnerships
Warsaw, 5 July, 2013 – More than 660 of the world’s leading
ICT policy professionals attending ITU’s 13th Global Symposium for Regulators
(GSR-13, 3-5 July) encouraged regulators, operators, service providers and
developers of so-called ‘over-the-top’ content platforms to collaborate on
cooperative strategies that can ‘grow the pie’ while helping extend network
reach to citizens and bring consumer prices down.
The symposium, held in Warsaw, Poland, under the patronage of Polish
President Bronislaw Komorowski, was the best attended GSR event ever held,
attracting representatives from more than 130 countries representing over 200
government and private sector entities, including 110 chief executive level
VIPs.
This year’s programme spanned a compelling range of hot topics, including
cross-border regulatory harmonization; the challenge of finding additional
radio-frequency spectrum to support ongoing explosive growth in wireless
services and applications; migration from IPv4 to IPv6 Internet addressing to
ensure sufficient growth capacity for billions of new Internet-enabled devices;
the complex regulatory aspects of evolving digital financial transaction models;
and strategies to finance investment in new network infrastructure for fixed and
mobile broadband.
The event was opened on Wednesday by GSR-13 Chair Magdalena Gaj, President of
Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). Speaking to delegates at the
end of the afternoon today, she stressed Poland’s commitment to helping build a
fully inclusive information society, both nationally, and worldwide. “We need to
develop broadband infrastructure and promote wider use of ICTs. Our goal is to
encourage all individuals and communities to participate in the Information
Society,” she said.
At the close of the final GSR-13 session, regulators endorsed a set of Best
Practice Guidelines designed to provide a framework for innovation, investment
and competition while ensuring the very best deal for consumers. The new
guidelines stressed the need to adapt and develop more flexible, innovative and
light-handed regulatory frameworks, expanding beyond the traditional core
telecom sector to embrace the multi-faceted, multi-stakeholder dimensions of the
modern digital ecosystem.
High-level participation
Held at the Warsaw Hilton Hotel, this year’s
programme featured exceptionally strong high-level participation,
including Poland’s Minister of Administration and Digitization, Michal Boni;
Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and New Technologies of the Central
African Republic, Henri Pouzère; Minister of Digital Economy, Communication and
Posts of Gabon, Blaise Louembe; Minister of Information of Malawi, Moses Kunkuyu
Kalongashawa; European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner, DG Connect,
Neelie Kroes; GSMA Director-General, Anne Bouverot; FCC Acting Chairwoman,
Mignon Clyburn; and Facebook’s Director of Public Policy for EMEA, Richard
Allan.
The symposium continued the successful two-day Global Regulators-Industry
Dialogue (GRID) innovation begun last year by the Director of ITU’s
Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), Brahima Sanou.
“Regulating the ever-changing ICT sector is like aiming at a moving target.
Developing and using best practices is the best way to fast-track our efforts to
adapt to change and embrace new technologies to foster development and business,
“said Sanou. “I believe that by working together in identifying best practices
we will lay robust regulatory foundations to drive digital communications
ahead.”
A Pre-event Day featuring special side sessions, including a meeting of
private sector Chief Regulatory Officers (CROs), a meeting of global Regulatory
Associations, and a seminar on spectrum auctions organized by the GSMA, was also
very well-attended.
“At this year’s GSR we’ve seen a lot of regulatory agencies, operators,
partners, financial institutions and even leading media organizations – there’s
an understanding that we all need to work together to resolve the important
issues, and the GSR is the only platform in the world that allows them to all
share their ideas, proposals and experiences – there’s simply no other forum
like it,” said ITU Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.
Next year’s GSR will be held in Bahrain in June, 2014, at the invitation of
Bahrain’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA). It will be chaired by
TRA Chairman, Mohammed Al Amer.
The full set of GSR 2013 Best Practice Guidelines agreed at the end of this
year’s event are available at
www.itu.int/GSR13.
Outputs from the meeting will also be incorporated into ITU’s annual
regulatory report,
Trends in Telecommunication Reform.
A series of Discussion Papers on key GSR issues is available
here.
Background information, including speeches of the high-level participants, a
Polish ICT market overview, and key global statistics on broadband, are
available on the GSR-13 Newsroom at
http://www.itu.int/en/newsroom/Pages/gsr13.aspx.
Download GSR-13 photos:
www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/sets/72157634465030796/
Watch GSR-13 interviews:
http://bit.ly/19sxrCH
Follow the event on Twitter at: #GSR13.
For more information, visit
www.itu.int/GSR-13 or contact:
Piotr Jaszczuk
Media & PR, Office
of the Advisor to the President
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Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations & Public
Information, ITU
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