GTPRN January 2021 Newsletter

Welcome to the GTPRN January 2021 Newsletter

2020, WHAT A YEAR! We understand how difficult this year was for all of us, but certainly we have also learnt many lessons. I have personally experienced through 2020 how that always with every difficulty, there is also a relief. We hope you all are safe and sound, and we are sure that soon, everything will be just fine, and all the troubles will be over.

I thought that a new year deserves a special celebration with our authors, readers and of course our capable editor team which volunteer with a lot of their times to deliver something useful to all of us.

Almost two years ago, GTPRN was just an idea that many of us thought about, ‘why cannot we have some sort of a forum for US, researchers and practitioners who work in the telecom policy field and who come from interdisciplinary backgrounds (e.g. economics, law, engineering, management, business, policy). Personally, I have been always concerned about the involvement of the academia in the activities of the Radio Sector of the ITU (ITU-R), and on how to the share the knowledge with the research community.

All of this suggests that we should have some sort of a forum to connect telecom policy conferences, centers, journals, educational departments, scholars and students, and aligning their goals. It was also important to have a network where we can exchange briefs about our research activities and share news about jobs announcements, Conferences, and Journals CFPs.

In May 2020, GTPRN became a reality after extensive consultation with the main profiles in the telecom policy field and with the valuable comments, remarks and suggestions of several senior scholars. This includes Prof. Don Shin, Prof. Thomas Hazlett, Prof. Rob Frieden, Prof. David Reed, Prof. William Webb, Prof. William Lehr, Prof. Erik Bohlin, Prof. Elizabeth Fife, and Prof. Dale Hatfield. As always, thank you is not enough!

I am quite grateful to Dr. Pierre De Vries and Prof. Jason Whalley who have always been there for me and I consider them as partners in GTPRN, and certainly without their help, I would not be able to write these lines now.

Through 2020, we did have very useful contributions on different topics. On the top of our list is Prof. Rob Frieden, Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications and Law Penn State University, and it is not a secret that I am big fan of his work and his telecom blog is a must read.

Ambassador Grace Koh, the head of the US delegate to the WRC-19, has delivered an excellent article on the U.S. mid-band spectrum policy. Ambassador Koh is currently Vice President, Legislative Affairs at Nokia and she has certainly brought new spirit to the company.

Eng Wael Sayed, Chair of SG 1, and the Dean of WRC-19 has provided an overview on the SG 1 activities which is one of the few ITU-R SGs that addresses economic and regulatory aspects of spectrum management (e.g. pricing, auction).

Dr. David Reed has kindly suggested a non-exclusive list of research topics on spectrum management. Dr. David Reed under the leadership of Prof. Dale Hatfield has been providing a unique and must-attend course on telecom policy each year in Colorado ‘Managing Effectively in the Changing Telecommunications Environment’.

Prof. Jennifer Manner has raised several issues on technology neutrality. Prof. Manner is quite active on the academic and professional levels, and even when it comes to movie making. I did enjoy the most her book ‘Spectrum Wars’ which is a must-read to understand what happens the behind of scenes at WRCs.

Prof. Jason Whalley has written an excellent essay on the impact Covid-19 on ICT industry. Prof. Whalley has done a lot for the telecom policy community during the last years via supervising students, reviewing papers, editing journals, and managing conferences.

Mr. Mohamed Abd El Hassib, Vice Chairman of ITU-R Study Group 7 (Science Services), and one of the few experts in the field outside of NASA and ESA, provided an overview on the activities of the ITU-R Study Group 7 responsible of science services in preparation for WRC-23.

Dr Roslyn Layton, senior vice president of Strand Consult and a visiting researcher in communication, media and information technologies in the technical faculty of IT and design in the department of electronic systems at Aalborg University (Denmark) has delivered an excellent article on Telecom and COVID-19, which is a must read to understand the impact of the epidemic on network operators.

Judge Abdelmohssen Sheha has addressed telecom regulations from a legal viewpoint. Judge Sheha is one of the few from the legislation sector that addresses telecom policy topics from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

Dr. Michael Marcus, one of my favorite scholars and a spectrum management hero, has kindly agreed to share with the GTPRN community a previously published article of him that is still relevant ‘Spectrum Policy for National Government Users: A Worldwide Policy Challenge’.

Prof. Gerard Pogorel, Professor of Economics-Emeritus, Institut Polytechnique de Paris-Telecom Paris Graduate School of Engineering, has written an important article entitled ‘Telecom Operators facilitating Audiovisual Streaming and Cultural Diversity, post Covid-19’. 

Prof. Jim Isaak, Chair of IEEE USA Committee on Communications Policy, has raised some of the policy challenges related to the privacy and broadband issues. 

Mr. Mohamed Abdelghany, Vice-Chair of SG 5 has reviewed the different ITU-R activities with a focus this issue on Study Group 5 ‘Terrestrial Services’.

Dr. Abdulhadi AbouAlmal, Head of Technology Standardization & Spectrum Management, Etisalat, has written a short essay on a quite interesting new topic, which is the use of IMT system for fixed wireless broadband.

Dr. Ramy Ahmed Fathy, Vice-Chair of ITU-T SG20 and Co-Chair of WP1/20 has updated us with respect to the recent ITU-T activities related to the advancement of the Internet of Things and Smart Cities and Communities related technologies. 

Mr. Roberto Ercole,  an international consultant on spectrum and telecom issues, and a well-known expert, at least within the ITU-R, has analysed the importance of balancing between regulatory measures to increase competition and the impact on the cost of providing mobile services. 

Dr. Shiv K. Bakhshi, VP of Industry Relations at Ericsson, and Dr. Sendil Devar, General Manager Standards & Spectrum at Ericsson have shared with us an excellent article on rural connectivity.  

The last update on the 6G development was provided from Prof. Marja Matinmikko-Blue, the main leader of 6G Flagship, World’s first 6G Research Program.

Prof. Martha Suarez, President of Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA), has highlighted the recent development of the latest generation of Wi-Fi, known as Wi-Fi 6E, and the merits of deploying Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz instead of IMT. 

I am also very grateful to GTPRN editor team namely, Ayushi Tandon, Arzak Khan, Rolla Saad, and Kester Osahenye who volunteer with their times and knowledge to deliver GTPRN to you each month. Thank you! Their impressive bios are available at the end of this newsletter.

The TPRC48 will be held online from 17 to 19 February 2021, and registration fees have been dramatically decreased for the conference to encourage participation, and all live content will be recorded and subsequently available at any point during the conference to registered attendees. It is not too late to register for the conference and I strongly suggest checking the list of accepted papers for TPRC this year here. Here is my personal list to check during the conference 

And of course, the whole spectrum session to be chaired by Dr. Michael Marcus!

Make sure also to submit before the new extended deadline (5th February 2021) to the 23rd ITS Biennial Conference “Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world” on the 20th – 23rd June 2021. The conference shall discuss several issues including the impact of Covid-19 – on telecommunications networks, different sectors, and users. You can submit your abstract here.

PTC-21 was a big success this year although the conference was held online and there has been several interesting research panels. An excellent news this year was the awarding of Prof. Heather Hudson the 2021 Richard J. Barber PTC Distinguished Service Award. Prof. Hudson along with Prof. Elizabeth Fife have been leading the research activities within PTC and inspired tens of young scholars.

Finally, I do hope GTPRN will continue through 2021 and we really count on your encouragement to be able to do so.  Please share with us and with the GTPRN community your articles, views, news, announcements. If you have a specific topic that you want to share an update or opinion on in one to three pages, please do not hesitate to share it with us via [email protected]

Kindly also help us by spreading the word about the GTPRN community and forward this newsletter to your colleagues or students. You are more than welcome to join our Facebook or LinkedIn Groups, or to subscribe directly to our website www.gtprn.org where you have the chance to comment on each article or post.

Keep the faith, stay safe and well.

Mohamed El-Moghazi

GTPRN Team – [email protected]

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