Next generation communications & the level playing field

In this paper for the CCIA, Brian Williamson argues that :

• The focus of sector specific ex ante telecoms regulation should be narrowed to access bottlenecks with freedom to innovate and compete for all in the communications apps market
• The term the ‘level playing field’ has no practical application
• Next generation communications apps are evolving rapidly

Out-of-home internet use

In this study for the Broadband Stakeholders Group, we considered patterns of out-of-home use of the internet. Rather than focusing on mobile device usage (which includes much in-home traffic) or mobile network traffic (which excludes other forms of out-of-home use, such as wifi hotspot usage), this study seeks to quantify out-of-home use.

We also look at drivers and limits to growth, and the relative importance of bandwidth growth and unit price declines.

Report: Out of home use of the Internet

BSG Press release

Patterns of internet traffic

This paper examines how fixed broadband traffic has grown in different countries around the world, bringing together data from multiple regulators. It also considers the drivers of traffic growth, and the weak correlation with bandwidth growth.

Regulatory Independence - Revisited

In this note, Brian Williamson revists the rationale for regulatory independence, and how it fits with increasing government ambitions for network infrastructure

Regulatory Trade-offs

Communications policy and regulatory objectives are wide ranging and complex. Countries seek affordable, diverse, widely available and used services of a high quality, but virtually all regulatory decisions involve trade-offs between these objectives. A given decision may support one policy objective, but perhaps impede another, or come at a cash cost to be borne by the treasury.

Communications Chambers worked with the WEF and Vodafone to understand such trade-offs, and to develop an online 'spirit level' tool to map of how countries around the world are striking different balances between telecoms objectives.

The tool and the associated paper are available here