GTPRN December 2021 Newsletter

Welcome to the GTPRN December 2021 Newsletter

And WE ARE BACK 

We are profoundly sorry for the absence of GTPRN during the last months, but our team was engaged in other related telecom policy activities. Most importantly, our active editor, Dr. Ayushi Tandon, finally got her degree to be the first woman to receive a PhD in Information Systems from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India. She argues for a woman-centered design approach joining the conversations on patient-centric health IT designs within the domain of human-computer interaction (HCI).

The author of this newsletter was honored to contribute with a chapter on the future of international spectrum policy in the new book ‘The Debates Shaping Spectrum Policy’ along with hisidols that got him into spectrum policy 15 years ago, Martin Cave, Gerard Pogorel, and William Webb. The book has several valuable chapters on different trendy issues (e.g., 6G, AI, Climate Change) by Martin Sims, Richard Womersley, Simon Forge, Marja Matinmikko-Blue, Manuel R. Marti, Toby Youell, Mary Longhurst, and Nicky Preston. This would not be possible without the continuous support and inspiration of 
Prof. Jason Whalley.

This issue has an exclusive article from one of the rising stars of telecom policy field, Prof. Edward Oughton, Assistant Professor in the College of Science at George Mason University, entitled “Revisiting Wireless Internet Connectivity: 5G vs Wi-Fi 6”. This is a trendy issue given the current intense discussions within and outside the ITU-R regarding the future use of the 6 GHz and whether countries should follow the US approach in identifying the whole band, 5925-7125 MHz for Wi-Fi 6E or to deploy IMT in the upper band, 6425-7125 MHz as the last available mid-band for 5G as claimed by the mobile industry. Prof. Oughton received the M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Clare College, at the University of Cambridge, U.K., in 2010 and 2015, respectively. He later held research positions at both Cambridge and Oxford. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter.

Our second exclusive article in this issue is by Dr. Abdelmohsen Sheha, Pre-trial judge at the State Council of Egypt, with the title “5G Networks: National Security vs Freedom of Commerce: A Glimpse of Recent Legal Challenges in French Law”. The article was firstly published in French and it addresses an overlocked aspect of the 5G security which is related to national laws and competition among operators. Dr. Sheha is currently affiliated to the Center of Judicial Studies and Research, and he earned his Ph.D. from the Université de Strasbourg, France with a dissertation on Public Comparative Law, dealing with telecommunications regulation in European, French, and Egyptian laws. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter.

A third exclusive article is by Roberto Ercole, spectrum management expert and the Director of Spectrum and Telecoms Consulting Ltd at Cambridge, UK. Mr. Ercole focuses on ‘Spectrum Liberalisation and Technology Neutrality Licences’ with technical and regulatory aspects. The article takes a different stance on the issue “The use of technology neutral licensing does not of itself allow an efficient market for spectrum to function…” with evidence from Europe. You don’t have to be an engineer to read his article, but if you are, you will enjoy it. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter.

We are thrilled to have Mr. Mohamed Hafez joining our editor team. Mr. Hafez is currently a doctoral student in future radio spectrum management at Tampere University of Technology in Finland and he also works with Nokia Mobile networks as a technical project manager. You may check his bio at the end of this newsletter.

The new book by Prof. Jennifer A. Manner, Spectrum Wars: The Rise of 5G and Beyond, is available for pre-order, and it mainly builds on the her previous book, “Spectrum Wars: The Policy and Technology Debate”, which provides an excellent overview on the different aspects of international and national spectrum management. Another important publication that was issued recently by the ITU is “Measuring digital development: Facts and figures 2021” and you can download it for free

For those who are following the 3.45 GHz spectrum auction in the US, I would suggest checking these three articles in order:

You may find the following Tips & Best Practices for Aspiring Policy Scholars useful. Regarding telecom and policy news, an interesting article on 5G can be found here “How well is 5G shaping up?”. You can also check this following interesting discussion on 6G by Prof. William Webb. Below are the main publications on telecom policy in the last months”

The Call for Papers for the 31st European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society – Reining in digital platforms? Challenging monopolies, promoting competition and developing regulatory regimes – is now available here. The conference will be held in June 2022 and is planned as an ‘in-person’ conference with a welcome reception on June 19 followed by three days of the conference (20 to 22 June).

PTC-22 is back as a hybrid event, with in-person sessions in Waikiki, and some virtual sessions in the period of 16-19th January 2022 in Honolulu Hawaii with several interesting panels and presentations, You can register here

An interesting conference “Topics in Law & Technology (TILT): Collision Course: Recurring Conflicts in Law & Tech” at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship in the University of Colorado Law School in the period of 16-18th February 2022. Registration is available register here

There are several related telecom policy vacancies as follows:

A distinguished senior scholar, Prof. Rob Frieden, has recently retired, and GTPRN want to congratulate him on decades of exceptional work and wish him every happiness in retirement. Check this brief article on hid dedication,  intellectual works and mentorship which will likely continue to impact the telecom policy field for years to come.

Last but not least, I must admit I have been overwhelmed by the great initiation of Dr. Volker Stocker, Head of Research Group/Postdoctoral Researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (The German Internet Institute)/ Technische Universität Berlin. Dr Stocker has launched talkshow called “10+1 Questions: Real Life in Academia” which aims to inspire younger scholars and looks into some of the perhaps invisible sides of academia. In that talkshow, established scholars are asked about their careers, challenges, the best pieces of advice they have received, how they manage their time, and tips and tricks to better navigate the academic world. We can find previous episodes on YouTube channel and social media YouTubeTwitter. Podcast are also available via SpotifyAmazon Music: Stitcher, and Deezer

Finally, 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. We have now 170 scholars and practitioners who share the interest in telecom policy, and we can only grow with your help and support. You are more than welcome to join our Facebook or LinkedIn Groups, follow us on twitter @GlobalGtprn, or to subscribe directly to our website www.gtprn.org where you have the chance to comment on each article or post.

Take care and stay safe.

Dr. Mohamed El-Moghazi

GTPRN Team – [email protected]

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