Welcome to the GTPRN January 2023 Newsletter
And WE ARE BACK
This issue is a review of the important updates from 2022, a difficult year for some of us, and we wish 2023 would be a year of peace, prosperity, and good health for all of us. Our editors have been in consultation the last months to reach the optimum format for our readers and your responses to our survey have been quite beneficial in this regard. As a result, we have changed the newsletter format and try to accommodate other telecom policy interests recognizing that perhaps our focus has been limited to topics such as wireless technologies and satellite industry and spectrum management. We truly hope that you will find this issue useful and we remind ourselves that we volunteer for the benefit of the global telecom policy research community.
Our first exclusive article is by Prof. Arturas Medeisis, lead scientist at Cellular Expert company and adjunct Professor at the VILNIUS TECH University, on database-driven shared spectrum access. In this article, he addressed the reasons for the gap between innovative concepts in spectrum management and existing traditional operations. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter.
Our second article is by Mr. Khalid Al Awadhi, Chairman of the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM19) for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) and the head of the UAE delegation when it comes to Space Services, and it is entitled “Measuring User Acceptance of Satellite Broadband in the UAE”. The issue has become increasingly important due to the advancement in satellite technologies and the integrations towards cellular mobile. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter.
Our third exclusive article is by Prof. Giovanni Geraci, the Head of Telecommunications Engineering at Univ. Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, with the title “Integrating Terrestrial and Non-terrestrial Networks: 3D Opportunities and Challenges”. The article is related to the increasingly attention to NTN and how it can contribute to the concept of 3D wireless networks. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter.
Last but not least, our fourth author, LTC (Ret) G A Redding, addresses a non-traditional topic that has been overlocked in the literature in his article “ American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) Initiates Worldwide Satellite Delivery”. Mr. Redding has over 50 years experience in public affairs and broadcasting, in and outside the government of the United States, and was inducted to the Defense Information School Hall of Fame in 2021. You can check his article at the GTPRN website or by the end of this newsletter
Make sure also to check latest article by Prof. William Webb “The end of an era of mobile data growth is in sight” which confirms previous predication in his book “The 5G myth”. Please check his article here.
Below are the main publications on telecom policy in the last months:
- May 2022 (Volume 70) of Telematics and Informatics
- July 2022 (volume 46/6) of Telecommunications Policy
- July 2022 (Volume 71) of Telematics and Informatics
- September 2022 (Volume 46/8) of Telecommunications Policy
- October 2022 (volume 46/9) of Telecommunications Policy
- November 2022 issue (Volume 74) of Telematics and Informatics
- November 2022 (volume 46/10) of Telecommunications Policy
- December 2022 of Journal of Information Policy ‘Special project: 50th anniversary of TPRC’
- December 2022 issue (Volume 75) of Telematics and Informatics
- January 2023 issue (Volume 76) of Telematics and Informatics
- January 2023 of Telecom Review which focuses on PTC activities.
There are several related telecom policy vacancies as follows:
- The Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (The German Internet Institute)/Technische Universität Berlin is seeking applicants for PhD candidate. More details can be found here.
- The Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for a “CARGC Postdoctoral Fellowship.” This is a one-year position renewable for a second year based on successful performance. Deadline is on 1st of February 2023.
- The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ) is seeking outstanding candidates for two postdoctoral fellowships focused on (1) research and program development on Arab Media and on (2) Digital Media in the Global South. More details can be found here. Deadline is on 1st of February 2023.
- There are also several exciting opportunities at the ITU for junior and middle levels as well. Feel free to check them here
You don’t want to miss the next ITS webinar “Internet Fragmentation, Reconsidered” by Andrew Sullivan, President and CEO of the Internet Society. This online event will be held on February 6, 2023 starting at 10:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm CET / 11:00 pm JST / 11:00 pm KST. The event will be host by the Ivy Business School, University of Western Ontario and TELUS Communications. More details can be found here.
A Workshop on ‘Communication Policy in the Time of Pandemics’ to be held in Toronto, Canada on May 29, 2023 and organized by the Institute for Information Policy (IIP) at Penn State University in collaboration with the Global Communication Governance Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and the York University/TMU Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture. The submission deadline for papers or abstracts is January 16, 2023, and Proposals and papers should be sent by e-mail to the Workshop Organizers at [email protected].
An important conference by the Silicon Flatirons Center and the University of Colorado Law ‘The Internet’s Midlife Crisis’ will be convened on Sunday, February 5–Monday, February 6, 2023 in the Wittemyer Courtroom, located in the Wolf Law Building at the University of Colorado Boulder. Details on the agenda and registration are available here.
It is worth having a special feature in this GTPRN issue to cover the activities of PLAMADISO Talks during 2022 which covers different topics ranging from digital platform, the role of data, clouds to Blockchain, market power and antitrust in 22 series. The PLAMADISO Talks is an initiative led by Dr. Volker Stocker, Head of Research Group/Postdoctoral Researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (The German Internet Institute)/ Technische Universität Berlin. Please make sure to follow these fascinating talks on their website, and on Twitter (@JWI_Digi_Econ). The previous talks can be found on their YouTube channel. Their latest event has been by Brett Frischmann ‘Friction-In-Design Regulation as 21st Century Time, Place and Manner Restriction’ on 12th of January and by Maximilian Schäfer ‘Algorithms in the Wild: Evidence from an Online Marketplace’ on 18th of January.
Another important update from 2022 is regarding the impact that the Silicon Flatirons scholars on the global spectrum regulations. In particular, the FCC started a proceeding that will explore ways to promote the efficient use of spectrum through improved receiver interference immunity performance. The FCC announcement is based on the seminal contributions of two pioneers when it comes to spectrum policy, Prof. Dale Hatfield and Dr. Pierre De Vries. We have very excited by the news that reflects the positive influence that the academia has on policy and regulations.
For those who are interested in spectrum management, the UK Future Spectrum Policy Forum (SPF) has recently hosted its first annual summit on future spectrum policy with the launch of three UK SPF-commissioned reports – ‘Market Mechanisms Review’, ‘Future Utilisation of the UHF Band’ and ‘Examination of existing services in 7- 24 GHz range’. These studies can be downloaded here.
PolicyTracker, the leading spectrum management consultation entity, has announced the release of their Spectrum Policy 101 podcast where they interview major scholars in the field including Professor Gerard Pogorel, Professor Martin Cave, Professor Thomas Hazlett, and Professor William Webb. You can check the available podcasts at the following link.
Another important spectrum related event was virtually held in November 2022 by ITS on ‘Driving Digital Transformation: International Comparisons of Spectrum Policy’ and the video recording can be accessed here
The CFP for ITS Europe 2023 is out now on and deadline has been extended to 20 January 2023. Details of the Call for Papers and abstract submission can be found on the ITS Europe website – https://itseurope.org/2023/. The conference will be held in Madrid, Spain in the period of 19th – 20th June 2023.
Three important CFPs are available now for three special issues of Telecommunications Policy as follows:
- The Impact of Modern Broadband Networks on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions [Paper submission deadline March 30, 2023 and scheduled publication date October 2023]
- The Economic, Social and Political Impact of Blockchain [Paper submission deadline April 30, 2023 and scheduled publication date Q4 2023 / Q1 2024]
- A Tribute to Dale W. Jorgenson: A Special Issue of the Journal of Telecommunications Policy Focused on the Digital Economy [Paper submission deadline June 30, 2023 and scheduled publication date Q1 2024]
One of the main highlights of 2022 was the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-22) that was held between 26 September and 14 October with the participation of 183 of ITU’s 193 Member States, as well as international and regional organizations, academia, and private-sector representatives. The final act of the conference included important resolutions on AI, outer space, digital transformation, IoT, and frequency assignments by military radio installations for national defence services. The final act is available here.
Another ITU important event was the ITU Workshop on the future development of mobile communication systems beyond IMT-2020, targeting year 2030 and beyond along with some of the best experts in the mobile industry. Presentations of the workshop can be downloaded here along with this important ITU report on IMT-2030 entitled “Future technology trends of terrestrial International Mobile Telecommunications systems towards 2030 and beyond” for a peek into what 6G would look like.
One of the main ITU conferences during 2022 was the International Forum on Connecting the World from the Skies that took place from 8 – 10 November 2022, in Riyadh, and hosted by The ITUand the Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST) of Saudi Arabia. This forum addressed airborne and space-borne communication networks from technology, space and science policy perspectives. These include GSO and HEO satellites, MEO and LEO satellite constellations, as well as High Altitude Platforms (HAPs), Low Altitude Platforms (LAPs), and air-to-ground (A2G) networks. You can check the forums sessions through the following link.
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.
GTPRN Team – [email protected]