Deploying very high capacity networks: competition rules and cooperation in the telecom sector

Tony Shortall is a Director of Telage, a Brussels-based consultancy firm in the field of telecommunications economics and regulation. He is an economist specialising in the regulation of network industries and has written extensively on these matters and has advised governments, regulators and firms.

Dr Kamila Kloc joined the European Commission in December 2004. As of July 2023, Kamila was nominated as the Director of Directorate B Digital Decade and Connectivity of Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) after acting in this position from February 2023. She held a position of the Head of Markets’ Unit in the same Directorate from 2019.

Previously she served as Deputy Head of Cabinet for Vice President Ansip responsible for Digital Single Market. Prior to joining the Cabinet, she worked at Directorate General for Energy coordinating exemptions from regulatory access rules for gas pipelines. During the Polish Presidency in 2011, she was seconded by the Commission to the President’s office of the Polish Energy Regulatory Authority.

Earlier, she worked for 5 years at the Directorate General for Competition dealing with merger and antitrust cases.

Prior to joining the Commission, she was employed at the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection in Poland as Adviser to the President. Kamila Kloc started her professional career in academia and taught at the Warsaw School of Economics as Assistant Professor. She has written her PhD on the role of competition policy in the public utilities sector with a special emphasis on telecommunications. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of California in Berkeley and a Chevening fellow at Oxford University.

Marco Benacchio, PhD, is an Economist and currently Head of the Unit “Regulation of electronic communications markets” in the Directorate “Electronic communications networks and services” at Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM). From 2009 to 2013 he served AGCOM as advisor of the President.

Previously, Marco Benacchio was case handler at the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato).

From 2016 to 2018, he was Co-chair of the Berec Expert Working Group (EWG) “Regulatory Accounting”. Currently, he is Drafting team leader of the “Regulatory Accounting” sub-group of the EWG “Remedies”.

Marc Bourreau is a Academic Co-Director at CERRE and Professor of Economics at Télécom Paris (Institut Polytechnique de Paris). He is affiliated with the interdisciplinary institute for innovation (i3) for his research.

His research focuses on competition policy and regulation, digital markets, and telecommunications.

Marc holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris Panthéon Assas.

Dr. Hui Cao has broad experience in the telecommunications industry ranging from the operator, academic research and the vendor. He has a deep knowledge of market trend, industry challenges, network deployment and technical development.

As head of Strategy & Policy at Huawei’s EU Public Affairs and Communication Office, based in Brussels, Dr. Hui Cao is responsible for policy and regulatory issues on innovative digital technologies towards the twin green and digital transitions. Prior to this position, Dr. Cao was the Network CTO in the Huawei Western Europe region with a focus on the latest technologies to explore cost-effective solutions and practices to build an experience-oriented and future-proof broadband network. He also worked with China Telecom for Broadband network management and development.

Dr. Cao obtained his doctoral degree in Electronic Engineering from Oxford Brookes University in the UK.

Grania Holzwarth is head of EU competition policy for Deutsche Telekom in Brussels. As part of the international competition team at DT, her focus has been on ongoing competition cases in the field of telecoms mergers and antitrust cases in the ICT sector in the EU and US, as well as the development of competition policy in the context of digitalisation.

Beyond that, she is the Chair of ETNO´s Competition Policy Taskforce and the Vice Chair of ICLA’s EU chapter.

Bruno Liebhaberg is Executive Chairman of the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) which he founded in 2010.

From 2018 to 2021, he was also the first Chairman of the European Union Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM ULB) where he taught from 1979 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he advised former European Commission President Jacques Delors on industry and R&D matters related to the completion of the EU Single Market.

He holds a Master’s in management sciences from SBS-EM ULB and a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

¹Also representing B.LIEBHABERG S.A., Director General

²Member of the Strategic Committee

Winston Maxwell is Director of the Law & Digital Technology Studies department at Télécom Paris – Institut Polytechnique de Paris, where he teaches and writes on subjects related to the regulation of data, AI and telecommunications. He previously had a career in private practice as a partner of the international law firm Hogan Lovells.

Winston completed his law degree (JD) at Cornell, his PhD in economics at Télécom Paris, and his HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) at the University of Paris Panthéon Sorbonne. His research focuses on the regulation of AI, and in particular human control over algorithmic systems, explainability and bias. Winston co-ordinates the “Operational AI Ethics” program at Telecom Paris, which includes AI Ethics teaching at Institut Polytechnique de Paris. In addition to being a research fellow at CERRE, Winston is a member of the Data and AI Ethics Council of Orange, the Scientific Advisory Board of ARCOM, the Ethics Board of the Paris Institute of Advanced Studies. He also contributes to standardisation activities on trustworthy AI within ISO/IEC JTC21/WG 4.

Sabrina Stanislas-Boumier leads Qualcomm’s government affairs activities in France and deals with government officials and industry associations in support of EU spectrum and technology policy agenda.

Prior to joining Qualcomm, Sabrina worked at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance as head of the delegation to the EU on regulatory issues. Sabrina also gained professional experience at ARCEP, the French regulatory authority as a spectrum expert and at Orange as 3GPP standardization expert.

In the last six years, Sabrina has engaged in many campaigns on behalf of the French Ministry, developing and proposing national positions and following EU negotiations on competitiveness, innovation and industrial policies. Sabrina holds an Engineering Degree in telecommunications from Telecom SudParis – Institut Polytechnique de Paris.

Rita Wezenbeek is Director of Platforms Policy and Enforcement in DG CONNECT. The Platforms Directorate is in charge of policies and regulations applicable to online intermediary services, including the supervision of the implementation and enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act (the latter jointly with DG COMP). These two new Regulations establish strong rules to ensure a safe, fair and open platform economy for European citizens and businesses, and give the Commission significant regulatory powers over “gatekeepers” and very large platforms and search engines.

Rita joined the European Commission in 2002. Before moving to DG CONNECT in December 2020, she was the head of the units dealing with Anti-Trust and Telecommunications (2017-2020) and Retail Financial Services and Payment Systems (2010-2017) in DG Competition.

Before joining the Commission, Rita worked for sixteen years as a private lawyer, specialized in European and corporate law, in a Dutch/ Belgian law firm. She also was a Member of the Commission on European Integration, an independent advisory body on foreign policy to the Dutch government and Parliament.

Ben Wreschner is Head of Network & Economic Regulation at Vodafone, the British multinational telecommunications company, which he joined in 2011.

Mr Wreschner is an expert in regulatory strategy, market analysis, regulated pricing, cost modelling and regulatory accounting, overseeing Vodafone’s work in this field across all its territories and having previously advised operators and regulators on such matters in over 25 different countries.

He holds a BSc in Economics from LSE.