Where is spectrum management headed in 2025-35?

17 May 2018

15:00

- 17:45

Le Bouche à Oreille
Rue Félix Hap 11
1040 Brussels

About

The European Union’s spectrum policy has been debated and revised multiple times in recent years, as policymakers and the telecoms sector try to keep up with demands for connectivity. This CERRE Executive Seminar looked beyond the current debate, considering where Europe’s spectrum policy is headed in the medium term, and discussing how spectrum will (and should) be managed by 2035.

Background

Technological developments and evolutions in market structures have led to profound changes in Europe’s connectivity needs in recent years. The increasing scope of digitisation of both consumption and production, the convergence of fixed and mobile networks, consumers’ expectation of seamless connectivity, the emergence of the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine communication, and the increasingly complex demands of sectors such as transport and energy, have necessitated a revision of the EU’s radio spectrum policy.

In September 2016, in the context of the EU Electronic Communications Code, the Commission updated its rules regarding the management of radio spectrum. The Commission’s aim was to create a stable regulatory environment, improve coordination of spectrum and reduce divergences between regulatory practices across the EU to boost the single market.

While there is no doubt that Europe’s spectrum policy is forward-looking and aims to be more efficient in future spectrum allocation and use, questions remain as to whether it goes far enough. Has Europe invested too much time in trying to address past mistakes in its current spectrum proposals, and getting the traditional award of licensed spectrum to work properly? Is it time for Europe to adopt a more visionary policy, looking for other ideas and models? Does the recent US incentive auction offer a model that Europe can, or should, follow?

This high-level event brought together senior representatives from across the sector to consider where European spectrum policy is – and should be – headed in 2025-35.

This event was supported by Qualcomm.

Speakers

Bruno Liebhaberg

Executive Chairman¹ ²

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

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

Thomas Hazlett

Professor of Economics
Clemson University

Thomas Hazlett is Professor of Economics at Clemson University, South Carolina and a former Chief Economist of the US Federal Communications Commission.

He is an expert in spectrum policy and his essays have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Economist. He is also the author of several books, most recently releasing ‘The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone’.

Thomas Hazlett is Professor of Economics at Clemson University, South Carolina and a former Chief Economist of the US Federal Communications Commission.

He is an expert in spectrum policy and his essays have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Economist. He is also the author of several books, most recently releasing ‘The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone’.

Richard Feasey

CERRE Senior Advisor
Tech, Media, Telecom

Richard Feasey is a CERRE Senior Adviser, an Inquiry Chair at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and Member of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales.

He lectures at University College and Kings College London and the Judge Business School.

He has previously been an adviser to the UK Payments Systems Regulator, the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee and to various international legal and economic advisory firms.

He was Director of Public Policy for Vodafone plc between 2001 and 2013.

Richard Feasey is a CERRE Senior Adviser, an Inquiry Chair at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and Member of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales.

He lectures at University College and Kings College London and the Judge Business School.

He has previously been an adviser to the UK Payments Systems Regulator, the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee and to various international legal and economic advisory firms.

He was Director of Public Policy for Vodafone plc between 2001 and 2013.

Pascal Lamy

Vice Chair of the Board¹
Vice-President of the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation
Former Director General WTO, former European Commissioner for Trade

Pascal Lamy holds various mandates at the global, European, and French levels. He is notably the Vice-President of the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation, the Paris Peace Forum, the European branch of the Brunswick Group and coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes (Paris, Berlin, Brussels).

Pascal Lamy served two terms as Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from September 2005 to September 2013.

He graduated of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, of the Faculty of Law (Sorbonne), of the Institut d’Études Politiques (IEP) and of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA).

He began his career in the French civil service at the General Inspectorate of Finance and the Treasury. In 1981, he became advisor of the Minister of Economy and Finance, Jacques Delors, then Deputy Head of Prime Minister’s Pierre Mauroy cabinet in 1983.

From 1985 to 1994, Pascal Lamy was the chief of staff of the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, and his « sherpa » at the G7.

In 1994, he joined the team in charge of the recovery of the French bank Crédit Lyonnais, then becoming its CEO up to its privatization in 1999, before returning to the European Commission as Trade Commissioner (Romano Prodi’s Presidency) until the end of 2004.

After his mandate in Brussels, Pascal Lamy chaired for a brief sabbatical period the think tank working on European integration created by Jacques Delors, « Notre Europe » (now « Institut Jacques Delors »). He also became an associate professor at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and an advisor to Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the European Socialist Party. In 2005, he was elected to head the WTO.

His recent publications include “Strange New World” (Odile Jacob 2020) and “Où va le monde?” (Odile Jacob 2018).

¹Member of the Strategic Committee