Joakim Reiter

We look forward to supporting European policymakers as they deliver a new legislative initiative, the Digital Networks Act, for reform in this vital market, which underpins the future of Europe as a digital powerhouse.

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We call on Ministers to take further concrete steps in order to ensure that the European Council conclusions of 18 April 2024 turn into swift and concrete policy action. Heads of State and Government explicitly called for “supporting the digital transformation of business, government and society, which requires a true Single Market in digital services and data, encouraging and facilitating investment in digital infrastructure like 5G and 6G”.

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”… we are not making use of scale is telecommunications. We have a market of around 450 million consumers in the EU, but investment per capita is half of that in the US, and we are lagging in 5G and fibre deployment. One reason for this gap is that we have 34 mobile network groups in Europe – and that is a conservative estimate, we have in fact many more – often operating at national scale, versus three in the US and four in China. To produce more investment, we need to streamline and further harmonise telecoms regulations across Member States and support, not hamper, consolidation.” Change is hard, but when the price is EU Competitiveness, thereby our future prosperity and jobs, surely it is worth it?

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How companies do business is even more important in today’s world than ever before. #sustainable business practices across the value chain in environment and human rights are foundational pillars of competitiveness in our opinion. Great to see this going through the European Parliament.

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Broadband targets have been a key tool of telecoms policy for many years. However, there is growing evidence that current targets are not just unhelpful but positively harmful. In this paper by Brian Williamson and me, we look at the evidence that recent targets have overshot the mark (demanding far more bandwidth than is likely to be needed, given rapidly decelerating traffic growth), and lack technology-neutrality, potentially ignoring much more efficient solutions. In an increasingly dynamic market, there are great benefits to nimbleness. But targets set by governments, looking a decade ahead, are by their nature lumbering.

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Join the experts of Q1/1, Q3/1 and Q5/1 on an innovative workshop to reflect on Transformative Satellite Connectivity - within the context of enablers of #meaningfulconnectivity for #ICT4development . #broadband #emergencytelecoms #disasterriskreduction #ruralconnectivity

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Having given some thought to the spectrum policy questions posed by the European Commission's white paper "How to master Europe's digital infrastructure needs", especially in relation to strengthening EU coordination on auction timing, the thoughts of my colleague Janette Stewart and I are summarised in this article https://lnkd.in/eWFPmizV.

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The European Commission's White Paper on "How to master Europe’s digital infrastructure needs?" analyses the multiple challenges Europe currently faces in the rollout of future connectivity networks. It is a pity that it focuses on ways to create better market conditions for the largest telecom operators, without considering the importance of smaller players and the impacts on other players of the Internet ecosystem. The document makes special emphasis on the so called "cloudification" of telecoms, a trend that -they say- implies "convergence" and justifies a new regulatory framework. But what is this "cloudification", or "virtualization" of telecom networks? Nowadays, telecom core infrastructure is composed by computers, which need power, air conditioning, maintenance, software updates, hardware updates, 24/7 monitoring... in definite, lots of OPEX costs. Just as many industries, from all sectors across the economy are shifting their computing needs to the "cloud", telecoms are starting to do the same: hire computing capacity from data-center providers, to make savings on all that OPEX. It's a very convenient move, perhaps bad for their traditional suppliers, but in definite, an understandable trend. Is this convergence? It is not. It is a mere shift in the supply chain of the sector. Does this trend justifies a new regulatory framework? It doesn't, and the EC White Paper fails to explain why they think it is. Another remarkable proposal of the document is the new dispute settlement between telecom operators and content and application providers. And it is remarkable, because it is a revival of the "fair-share" -or "cost-sharing"- proposal from large telecom operators. I can't understand why they bring this discussion back to the table, when it was firmly rejected by all stakeholders on last year's consultation (except for large telecom operators, that is). It is worrisome that they propose again such radical regulatory intervention, when the Commission admits "there are very few cases of intervention (...) into the contractual relationships between market actors, that generally functions well and so do the markets for transit and peering." Correct, so why fixing something that is not broken? It is very important to remind the European Commission to pay attention to the needs of all industry players. It is an ecosystem where all members play a role and their relationships have been functioning well. The future of digital infrastructure, and in consequence its regulatory agenda, shall be informed by all stakeholders and by a broader set of policy objectives—including competition and user demand. I encourage you to participate and contribute with your thinking to this important consultation. The Internet Society's contribution is available here:

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Check out the latest advancements on 6G radio design and innovation on topics including AI-driven air interface design, advanced MIMO transmissions, joint communication and sensing, integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, and a lot more from Hexa-X-II! https://lnkd.in/ddaSZXuM #SNSJU #6G #AI

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🚨Head of Telecoms and Spectrum Policy London Salary: up to £60,000 Our Telecoms Programme brings together government, the regulator, telecom companies and stakeholders to help the UK maximise the benefits of adopting advanced communications services, maintain confidence in the security and resilience of our networks, and explore future telecoms. We do so to lower the cost to the sector of deployment, spur innovation and unlock value for all parties in connectivity. This is delivered through a mix of thought leadership, multilateral engagement and ecosystem building. techUK houses several special purpose vehicles, including the UK Spectrum Policy Forum (SPF). The purpose of the Spectrum Policy Forum is to be a pro-active industry-led sounding board to UK Government and Ofcom on future policy and approaches on spectrum and a cross-industry agent for promoting the role of spectrum in society and the maximisation of its economic and social value to the UK. https://lnkd.in/erR4H_4S

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Probably the best response to the report on how to promote the EU champions in telecoms markets for Europe’s international competitiveness could be what was just expressed by Sir Philip Lowe: “competition is the base of international competitiveness”.

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Really interesting Financial Times opinion piece by Argus Media's Natasha Fielding - which outlines the challenges the Europe faces to maintain its single gas market, despite having successfully navigated the huge disruption after Russia 'weaponized' its supply of gas into the region. She outlines several options European policymakers should consider. #gas #energytransition

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With the rollout of 5G still in progress, and the commercial rollout of 6G not slated until 2030, is it too early to start thinking about 6G? The governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and the United States don’t think so, and have agreed 6 shared principles which they believe are necessary for the development of 6G.

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📢 Transformative connectivity is fundamental to Europe achieving Digital Decade Targets and closing the gap with leading geographies.

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This is where delayaring makes a lot of sense for operators - both fixed and mobile - to move from capex/asset heavy to capex/asset light business. It's high time for most of them, if not already on the path. #FutureNetAsia #TWA24 #XyntacEnterprise #DTW #DTW24 #PTC25

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Great Politico TECH & AI summit yesterday, including a panel to discuss the status of #Connectivity in Europe. To secure Europe’s competitiveness, we must foster investment in trusted telecom networks which underpin digitalization. Our Head of Mobile networks Europe, Dr. Rolf Werner, explained why healthy operators with sufficient scale and more spectrum allocation coordination in Europe are key for stimulating investment. #5G #digitalization Nokia

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Yesterday, Global Certification Forum (GCF) announced the readiness of the certification program for #Broadband Mission Critical Services (#MCX), implementing a way to certify, initially Mission Critical Push-to-Talk, #MCPTT, as standardized by 3GPP. One could argue that it is just another Work Item, another set of validated test cases agreed collectively by the mobile industry and implemented on one or several test platforms and made available through Recognized Test Organizations (#RTOs). Like the hundreds of Work Items and hundreds of thousands of test cases that 3GPP, GSMA, Global Certification Forum (GCF) , and the collective effort from the industry have generated throughout the last 25 years and are tested every year in hundreds of #5G and #LTE devices, and previously on 3G or 2G. But it is way more than that. It is an important milestone on a long trip towards #standards that the Mission Critical Communications industry, lead by TCCA-Critical Communications, started some years ago. A trip that embarked 3GPP, GCF, public safety operators and many companies and individuals who have actively participated in the joint GCF/TCCA Mission Critical Work Stream, led by Harald Ludwig and Asif Hamidullah and have been supporting against many challenges, some expected, some not. Moving forward, devices implementing Mission Critical Services will be able to have not just their radios fully certified to comply with standards and interoperate with LTE or 5G networks supporting Mission Critical Operations, but also the Mission Critical Services clients certified to work seamlessly as they were specified in the standards. It is about delivering compliance and reliability. And for Mission Critical communications, reliability helps saving lives and supporting a better, safer society.

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Explore AI's role in critical comms at #CCW24! Join our panel: 'How can #AI be used effectively on Critical Communications?' Dive into practical insights and real-world applications. Secure your spot now! https://lnkd.in/epgTTZ4v

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