Breakfast briefing / Breakout groups

Fields marked with * are required.

08.00- 09.20: Breakfast Briefing

Making ICT Accessible – the policy solutions necessary

Participants include:

• Fabio Colasanti, DG Info Soc
• Clive Ansell , BT Group Strategy Director
• Kevin Carey , Director, HumanITy
• Nigel Hickson , DTI

Issues for consideration:

The themes for the breakfast briefing will address e-Accessibility, and explore key questions such as: how end-to-end service delivery and availability can be guaranteed in the digital age, the barriers to accessing the benefits of communications technologies and services, and explore whether the market alone can deliver these without the need for regulatory intervention.

Following keynotes from Ben Verwaayen, BT, and Rene Obermann, T-Mobile, there will be the option of four break-out groups to choose from to discuss different aspects of the Framework Review.

Discussion groups

1) NGN Session - Can the Framework provide a complete solution to the challenges of next generation networks in Europe?

Questions include:

1. NGN inter-operability and inter-connection – do we anticipate issues in advance or wait for the market to develop?
2. Is regulatory certainty important for NGN investment – are regulatory holidays necessary?
3. Is LLU the right long-term approach given the pace of fibre deployment?

Rapporteur – David Stewart, Director of Investigations, Ofcom

2) Remedying Discriminatory Behaviour

Questions include:

1. Is structural separation the only answer to unfair discrimination?
2. Is the Openreach model of operational separation a viable alternative?
3. Is equivalence of input the answer?
4. How can we control margin squeeze?
5. Where is the scope to deregulate?

Rapporteur – Andrew Heaney, Director of Competition Policy, Ofcom

3) Streamlining Regulatory Processes

Questions include:

1. Are the current processes delivering the right levels of market competition and harmonisation?
2. Does the balance of responsibility between national regulators and the Commission need to be adjusted?
3. Is a EU super-regulator the answer?
4. Could the Article 7 process be improved?
5. What changes should be made to the relevant market recommendations?

Rapporteur – Peter Alexiadis, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

4) Spectrum - roles and responsibilities

Given the rapid developments in wireless communications sector and increasing convergence:

1. How well do the existing national and international institutional arrangements work? In particular, is the distribution of functions and responsibilities between the EU, CEPT and national regulators right?
2. What alternatives are there to the status quo, and how should the relative merits of different options be assessed?
3. Are different institutional arrangements likely to have different advantages and disadvantages for different possible uses of spectrum? If so how do we take this into account?

Rapporteur – Isolde Goggin, Comreg