Events
South Africa Connect Public Seminar 21st October 2009
Spectrum Auctions : Lessons learned from around the world
Karen Wrege, KB Enterprises
TIME: Wednesday 21st of October, at 5:00 pm for 5:30 pm
VENUE: The Auditorium, Cell C, Rivonia Road, Sandown, Johannesburg
RSVP: In order to establish numbers for refreshment kindly reply to Marie Ndlovu at mndlovu@the-edge.org.za or on 011 339 1757
Spectrum auctions were first introduced in 1989 in New Zealand and since then dozens of countries have used competitive bidding procedures to award spectrum licenses for commercial services. In many places auctions have become the standard for assigning spectrum in commercial bands. Over the last twenty years, regulators have used various auction designs to assign spectrum and a wealth of white papers have emerged that describe auction successes and failures. The founders of Knowledge Based Enterprises (KBE) developed the auction program in the United States for the Federal Communications Commission. From its inception in 1994 until early 2005, Karen Wrege managed all aspects of the program and supporting software platform that was owned and operated by the US Federal government.
Auctions are a popular assignment method where the demand for the spectrum block(s) exceeds the available supply. Auctions have grown in popularity for several reasons, including recouping a portion of the value of the use of the spectrum and utilizing a more objective market-based approach as opposed to a more subjective administrative mechanism for assigning spectrum licenses.
It is important to note that the assignment phase is a small part of the complete realm of effective spectrum management which is seen as having five major components: allocation, service rules, assignment, monitoring and enforcement. To review briefly, the first step involves dividing (in the frequency dimension) the range of usable spectrum into blocks or bands of frequencies called allocations. These frequency allocations, which are often guided by the International Telecommunications Union’s radio regulations, determine the type of use allowed within that block or band. For example, the allocation might be for television broadcasting, land mobile radio systems, or radio navigation systems. The second step is to develop and impose service rules that are associated with a particular allocation. These may include technical rules that specify, for example, how the band is to be channelized to accommodate individual transmitters and the maximum transmitter power that can be used in such a channel within the band. The rules may also include non-technical constraints such as rules that determine who or what entities are eligible to receive licenses or authorizations to operate in the allocation. The third step involves assignments – granting the authority (e.g., in the form of a license) for a specific individual or entity to operate a transmitter on a specific channel at a specific location under the applicable service rules. The fourth step involves monitoring frequency use and compliance with rules, and the final step involves the enforcement of the rules and regulations established for the allocation.
Each of the steps of spectrum management is important and interrelated to the other steps in the process. In effective spectrum management, it is critical for regulators to first define their goals and objectives and create policies in each step identified above in line with those overall goals and objectives. Although they are market-based mechanisms, a spectrum auction alone cannot create a competitive telecommunications market; it is only through fair, transparent policy decisions throughout the entire spectrum management process that a regulator can hope to foster a competitive market for its consumers.
In the presentation, Ms. Wrege will identify some of the goals and objectives that countries have developed for their spectrum management activities, focusing on spectrum auctions as an assignment mechanism, and will give real world examples of success and failure.
Karen Wrege, co-founder of KB Enterprises LLC and founder of Wrege Associates has twenty years experience in implementing high stakes, complex government auctions of non-tangible assets. Beginning in the early 90’s, she developed the first combinatorial auctions for the US government, selling non-performing loans from defunct savings and loan companies for the Resolution Trust Corporation.
In 1994, Ms. Wrege developed the FCC auction program and supporting software system for the US federal government. She managed dozens of auctions for the FCC that resulted in billions of dollars of revenue to the US Treasury. In early 2005, Ms. Wrege began formed a consultancy specializing in auction software and implementation, and currently advises governments and bidders in auction design, conduct and participation. In addition, Ms. Wrege headed a team of telecommunications experts in conducting a global study of spectrum liberalization and the results of the study will be released at www.KBEauctions.com in September.
TIME: Wednesday 21st of October, at 5:00 pm for 5:30 pm
VENUE: The Auditorium, Cell C, Rivonia Road, Sandown, Johannesburg
RSVP: In order to establish numbers for refreshment kindly reply to Marie Ndlovu at mndlovu@the-edge.org.za or on 011 339 1757.
South Africa Connect aims to stimulate debate and provide information and analysis on South African ICT policy by means of public seminars and fora as well as through online spaces. Through these various channels, South Africa connect aims to influence interventions in ICT policy, regulation and practice that are geared towards connecting South Africans to global ‘network society’ and information economy.
South Africa Connect and is a collaborative project between the Shuttleworth Foundation and Research ICT Africa.
Interconnection Rate Benchmarking: How Namibia dropped its termination rates by nearly half
[Download Namibian Interconnection Rate Benchmarking Study]
Regulators across Europe and Africa agree that termination rates should be based on the forward-looking long-run incremental cost (LRIC) of termination of an efficient operator. Termination rates at cost of termination will remove economic distortions witnessed in Europe and Africa today and prepare the markets for a smooth transition to IP-based Next Generation Networks. The presentation reviews the latest developments and trends for interconnection rates and shows how interconnection benchmarking was used in Namibia to set termination rates. Implementing LRIC is challenging, expensive, time-consuming, and the required information is often not available in developing countries. The benchmarking methodology benchmarks termination rates, termination costs and regulatory best practice.
South Africa Connect, an initiative of Research ICT Africa and the Shuttleworth Foundation to stimulate debate on ICT policy and regulation in South Africa
TIME: Wednesday 28 July at 4pm for 4.30.
VENUE: The Auditorium, Cell C, Rivonia Road, Sandown.
RSVP: In order to establish numbers for refreshment kindly reply to Marie Ndlovu at mdlovu@the-edge.org.za or on 011 339 1757.
Seminar: The path to the information society: Does it lie through the mobile? Evidence from Asia and thoughts for Africa
On Tuesday 14 April 2008 5.30 for 6.00pm - Dr Rohan Samarajiva will present the next SA Connect Public Seminar Series: The path to the information society: Does it lie through the mobile? Evidence from Asia and thoughts for Africa.
“A people centered, inclusive, and development-oriented information society where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge enabling individuals and communities to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life,” was the common objective agreed upon during the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) process. This lecture will examine the evidence from representative surveys of teleusers at the Bottom of the Pyramid in six Asian countries, including within them the Indo-Gangetic Plain that is home to the world’s largest concentration of poor people, on whether the path to the information society is likely to be the conventional computer at the end of a broadband connection or a mobile. The possible contributions of the budget telecom network business model, pioneered in South Asia, will be discussed. Evidence on awareness and use of the Internet, awareness, trial and use of more-than-voice services on mobiles, and on trust and related factors likely to affect electronic payments will be presented. Lacunae that must be filled if the bottom of the pyramid is to reach the information society are identified.
Rohan Samarajiva has been active in ICT (including telecom) policy and regulation for over 20 years and is currently Chair and CEO of LIRNEasia [pronounced Learn Asia – www.lirneasia.net ], a regional ICT policy and regulatory research and capacity building organization, based in Colombo but active across South and Southeast Asia. From 1998-1999, Samarajiva served as Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka. Currently he serves as senior advisor on ICTs to Sarvodaya (Sri Lanka’s leading Community Based Organization) and on the ICT Subcommittee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. He is on the editorial boards of eight academic journals, including the International Journal of Regulation and Governance and Telecommunications Policy and writes a regular column for www.lankabusinessonline.com. His most recent book was on policy and regulatory roadblocks affecting ICT infrastructure in Asia. He is Guest Faculty at the TERI University, New Delhi. From 1987 to 2000, he was Assistant and then Associate Professor of Communication and Public Policy and Management at the Ohio State University in Columbus OH, USA. From 2000-2003, he was Visiting Professor of Economics of Infrastructures at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands (2000-2003).
The lecture will be held in Lecture Room 5. UCT Graduate School of Business
Breakwater Campus
Portswood Road
Green Point
Cape Town
South Africa
5:30 for 6:00 pm
RSVP - Light refreshments will be served. For catering purposes please RSVP to Marie Ndlovu at mndlovu@the-edge.org.za or on 011 3391757.
South Africa Connect Public Seminar - Wednesday 26th of November
The Growth of Next Generation Networks - From Hype to Reality?
South Africa Connect, an initiative of Research ICT Africa@The EDGE Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation to stimulate debate on ICT policy and regulation in South Africa, presents the first of its public seminars.
John Horrocks will discuss ‘The Growth of Next Generation Networks - From Hype to Reality?’ The presentation will cover the objectives and growth of next generation networks, from hype to reality, and the growing competition between the traditional telco model and the Internet, and in particular the issues for introducing new services.
John Horrocks has been an independent consultant for 18 years and was previously Deputy Technical Director of Oftel in UK. On behalf of the UK government he chairs the Technical Regulations Interconnection and Standards project team of the CEPT, with members from governments and regulators in various European countries. He has specialised in analysing the future prospects of NGN and the development of services on the Internet since being asked to predict the growth of VoIP by the UK Home Office in 2001. He is currently in the country as a consultant to ICASA.
Visit the South Africa Connect Blog online at: www.southafricaconnect.org.za for more information.
TIME: Wednesday 26th November at 4pm for 4.30.
HOST/VENUE: The Auditorium, Cell C Head Office, 150 Rivonia Road, Sandown.
RSVP: In order to establish numbers for refreshment kindly reply to Marie Ndlovu at mndlovu@the-edge.org.za or on 011 339 1757.
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