FSR Communications and Media Annual Conference 2013

After the successful workshop held in November 2012, a common feeling emerged about the necessity of continuing debating about the future of the telecommunications and media industry which is undergoing rapid changes.

The conference will aim at discussing the project of the European Single Market in telecommunications and media. Different stakeholders, i.e. representatives from the European Commission, NRAs, private companies and the academic world, will animate the debate. The contribution from a variety of participants, all involved in the sector, will guarantee a rich overview of the various aspects related to the idea of a European Single Market and allow a high quality policy debate. The result of this event should be to provide an overall of the different pros and cons and to analyse the concrete feasibility of this challenging policy objective.

The conference will be structured around 3 sessions that will discuss the main relevant topics, namely:

1. European Fixed Networks: this session will focus on the future of the European fixed networks by tackling topics such as the universal service, the digital divide, network investments, broadband and ultra broadband networks, NGAN, local loop unbundling, transition from copper to fibre, the gap between urban and rural areas.
2. Mobile and Spectrum in Europe: we are currently facing an important growth of the mobile data traffic and the debate on spectrum and its allocation and assignment appears to be crucial. This session will deal with the main relevant topics such as spectrum inventory, spectrum auctions, spectrum sharing, quality of service, Wi-Fi, and the future of European and national regulation of spectrum.
3. Internet and Media Content: the Internet can already be considered as a pan-European, actually global, network, but the issue of how European industry and regulation can deal with online content still needs to be clarified in many areas. Copyright, privacy, cloud computing, intermediaries, aggregators, AVMS content regulation, new business models are all relevant topics for this discussion.

Registration deadline: 6 May 2013