Trends in Global Communications:
Capturing the High Ground in an Uncertain World

Hong Kong 3 - 4 November 2008

Background

Developments in communications are transforming people’s lives, altering the media landscape and exerting a ‘multiplier effect’ on national economies. Mobile telephony has dramatically altered the economic prospects of millions, particularly in the developing world. The new mobility coupled with broadband is changing how people interact socially and professionally; it is transforming their access to media content and services. The economic and social impact of the coming generation of high-speed fixed and mobile network technologies will be profound.

Business strategies and public policies are being buffeted by the changes. Costly broadband infrastructure needs major investment requiring long-term payback - against a backdrop of hastening obsolescence and pressures for additional regulation relating to access and network neutrality. Speedier transmission has brought a correlating pace of data movement, replication and storage upon which new services are being built, but which are also leading to privacy concerns. In the field of content, digital switchover will mean even more delivery capacity - increasing consumer appetite and changing consumer tastes; this, some fear, may marginalize those traditional media platforms seen as a mainstay of information provision and social cohesion.

This conference will examine key aspects of these trends and offer practical insights into their impact. Issues for debate will include:

• What new scenarios will tomorrow’s broadband, internet, mobile and media markets present for business, government, regulators and consumers?
• How can critical bottlenecks in broadband development be overcome?
• What does increasing competition from broadband mean for traditional media services?
• What are the implications for content of a multi-platform, on-demand environment? Where will new creative ideas and the funding to deliver them come from?

• How are public policy and regulatory frameworks evolving? To what extent will they be ‘fit for purpose’ in the newly emerging environment?

Format

Day one and day two will mainly consist of plenary sessions. During part of the afternoon of day one and the morning of day two participants will divide into breakout groups to examine key communications issues in depth. A Gala Dinner will be held on the evening of day one.

Audience

An international mix of senior executives and strategic thinkers from the telecommunications, broadcasting and other media industries; policy makers and decision-takers from the financial sector, government, regulatory bodies and international organisations; and academic and other experts.

Keynote Speakers

Rita Lau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Hong Kong SAR Government

Houlin Zhao Deputy Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union

Alexander A Arena, Group Managing Director, PCCW Ltd

Julia Johnston, Co-founder, mEgo.com

DRAFT AGENDA

MONDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2008

Session One
Opening Keynote Communications Perspectives

Arne Wessberg
President, International Institute of Communications; former President, European Broadcasting Union

Daniel R Fung SBS, SC, QC, JP Chairman, Broadcasting Authority, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Brian Quinn Director General, International Institute of Communications

Session One
Keynote Communications Perspectives

Opening Keynote Address

Rita Lau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Hong Kong SAR Government

Alexander A Arena, Group Managing Director, PCCW Ltd

Julia Johnston, Co-founder, mEgo.com

Session Two
The Broadband Experience: Taking stock and mapping futures

• How can commercial players best be incentivized to develop the networks? How to prevent any distortion of competition?  How has the inevitable trade off between investment risk and required access regimes affected the roll-out of the relevant infrastructure?
• What impact do the different perspectives of commercial players and governments have on outcomes in key areas like universality of access and service quality? When, if ever, must governments intervene?
• How can the contribution of broadband to growth and productivity be maximised? How can broadband-enabled delivery of certain services, such as healthcare, be enhanced?
• What new consumer and delivery possibilities are raised by wireless broadband? How will it impact on next generation access networks? To what extent will it compete with fixed networks?

Dr Sam Paltridge, Senior Economist, Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Lintao Jiang
Chief Engineer, China Academy of Telecommunications Research, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, People’s Republic of China

Robert Pepper, Senior Managing Director, Global Advanced Technology Policy, Cisco Systems, Inc

Takashi Ebihara
Senior Manager, Next Generation Network Office, Technology Planning Department NTT

Dr Andrew Barendse Head of Regulation, Telkom SA, South Africa

Moderated panel discussion

Session Three
Small Screen, Big Scream: How much has the mobile really delivered, how much more to come?

In 2011 there will be 5 billion mobile devices connecting us - voice, text and broadband.

• How will the new global conversation alter social interaction and change our systems and economies?
• What happens to media markets if and when the mobile phone becomes the do-it-all personal device?
• Is high adoption of wireless broadband now a key factor for national economies to be internationally competitive?
• Where and how do policy makers and regulators engage with this? How can we ensure consumers are both empowered and protected?

Produced in collaboration with the IIC Australian Chapter

In the chair     

Jock Given, Professor of Media and Communications, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Dan Wong, Vice President, Services and Software and Online Sales, China Area, Nokia

Dr Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director, LIRNEasia

Yasu Taniwaki, Director, Telecommunications Policy Division Telecommunications Bureau,Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan

Session Four
Breakout Groups

1. Spectrum management in an era of rapid technological change

• How can countries best take advantage of the new spectrum resulting from the digital dividend?
• Spectrum allocation or auction? What modes of allocation and assignment work well?
• What about spectrum trading or spectrum usage rights? Can tradability be increased? Would that help or hinder efficient spectrum management in cases where there are cross border aspects? What role for spectrum refarming?
• What are the issues surrounding the use of white spaces and how can they be resolved?

Robert Pepper, Senior Managing Director, Global Advanced Technology Policy, Cisco Systems, Inc

Danny Lau, Assistant Director (Operations)
The Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

Marc Berejka, Senior Director of Technology Policy and Strategy, Microsoft

Dr Zhong Liu, Consultant and Visiting Professor, College of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, People’s Republic of China

John Yip, Chief Engineer, Radio Television Hong Kong

2. The evolution of communications regulation - the role of competition policy

• What is the appropriate test for applying sector regulation (ex ante) versus general competition law (ex post) and what are the conditions for removing ex ante economic regulation completely?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of separating administration of sector regulation from the application of competition rules, including compliance and enforcement measures? Can it ever be appropriate to apply both ex ante and ex post regulation simultaneously?
• How should regulators deal with the interface between competition and sector regulation in the area of universal service and the attendant cross-subsidies?

Shanker A Singham, Partner, Squire Sanders & Dempsey

Grant Forsyth Vice President, Global Interconnection & Regulation
Commercial, Legal and Regulatory, BT Global Services

Martin Donnelly CMG Senior Partner, Ofcom

Dr Andrew Barendse Head of Regulation, Telkom SA, South Africa

Stuart Chiron, Director of Regulatory Affairs PCCW Ltd

Yung-kuen Ha, Deputy Director-General of Telecommunications Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong SAR

3. Quality broadcasting: an inevitable victim of digital distribution?

• How to define quality across the range of genres and how to deliver it?
• How will individual country conditions influence effective delivery in terms of the character (including funding) of media institutions?
• If people of various ages and backgrounds get their content from different platforms does that matter? Does it impair the cohesive societal role which media content can play?

Dr Andrew Taussig, Trustee, Voice of the Listener and Viewer, UK; former Director, Foreign Language Services, BBC World Service

Thomas Crampton, Communications and New Media Strategist

Keen-man Tai, Assistant Director of Broadcasting (Radio), Radio Television Hong Kong

Modipe Chris Nkwe, Member, National Broadcasting Board, Botswana

Fethi Nedjari, CEO, Xeopex Productions Cie, France; Secretary General, IIC International Association of Young Communications Professionals

Benjamin Solins, Media analyst; Board Member, IIC International Association of Young Communications Professionals

Gala Dinner
Vessel: Noble House (Watertours of Hong Kong Limited)
Journey: Symphony of Lights Cruise with Dinner
Embarkation/Disembarkation: Pier 9, Central, Hong Kong
Dress: smart casual

TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2008

In the chair

Marion Lai, JP, Director-General of Telecommunications Office of the Telecommunications Authority, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People’s Republic of China  

Keynote Address

Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union

Session Five
The Evolving Content Market: Public policy implications of a multi-platform world

• What are the essential differences between the traditional world of broadcasting channels and the participative world of social networks, personal platforms and user-generated content?
• What challenges does the parallelism of the new ‘unofficial’ content world and that of traditional content suppliers pose for regulators and society at large?
• Does this more complex, less unidirectional media environment require new policy attitudes and instruments in order to meet people’s expectations around national identity and cultural diversity?

Len Katz Vice-Chairman, Telecommunications Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

Robin Foster, Independent Adviser, UK Government's Convergence Think Tank; Director, Human Capital media consultants

Tony Surtees, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, iPrime, Australia

Projit Chakrabarti, Head of Market Research & Strategy New Delhi Television (NDTV)

Session 6
Breakout Groups

4. What next for mobile TV?

• Is mobile becoming the fourth screen after the cinema, home TV and the internet?
• What are the threats to successful deployment? How will operators and broadcasters work together?
• To what extent are open standards and interoperability key to creating a successful mobile TV market?
• Should user-generated content be leveraged and if so, how?

Vivek Couto Executive Director, Media Partners Asia

Giulio Dorrucci, Founder, Chairman and CEO PGK Media, Singapore; Founder and CEO Singapore Digital Pte Ltd

Dr Ursula Oesterle, Vice President, Innovation, Swisscom

May Oh, Senior Director, Business Development, Greater China and India, MediaFLO Technologies, Qualcomm International

Charles Henshaw, Director and Chief Executive Officer China Mobile Peoples Telephone

5. Unleashing the market for audiovisual content in new media

• What are the various approaches to copyright and rights licensing for high-value audiovisual content on the internet?
• Are any online business models working or are they “trading analogue dollars for digital pennies”? Do they imperil the conventional networks?
• Is ‘geo-blocking’ on the internet sustainable?
• Rights access and services – how is the issue of access to rights being resolved?

Julia Johnston, Co-founder, mEgo.com

Peter S Grant, Counsel, McCarthy Tétrault, Canada

Edward Hanapole, Chief Information Officer, Digital Technology, STAR Group

Tony Surtees, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, iPrime, Australia

6. Net neutrality, where are we now?

• What impact does the rise of high value desirable content have on user demand for high value and premium broadband connections? What role if any for usage sensitive internet pricing?
• No such thing as a free lunch?  Who should pay – the end user, the content service provider or the network provider? What are the implications?
• The net neutrality debate is shifting from a focus on providers to one on services to the consumer and the user experience. What network management design and marketing approaches are there to solve the problem?
• Upsum: the current state of the net neutrality debate in Asia and elsewhere.

Janet Yale, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, TELUS Communications

Yasu Taniwaki, Director, Telecommunications Policy Division Telecommunications Bureau,Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan

Xavier Dedullen, General Counsel (APAC), Verizon Business

Claro Parlade, Executive Director, Cyberspace Policy Center for Asia Pacific (CPCAP); Senior Partner, Parlade Hildawa Parlade & Eco Law Offices, The Philippines

Session Seven
The Individual and the Internet – The Use and Abuse of Personal Information

• What can be defined as ‘personal data’ in the 21st century? What public policy questions are raised by the new dimension in the capacity to store, manipulate and replicate?
• Balancing the requirements of business models with the protection of individual rights. How realistic is the concept of information ownership when business models depend on focused information about human preferences and needs?
• What level of self-protection can individuals be expected to exercise? What actions are appropriate for business players, governments and regulators?

Doreen Weisenhaus Director, Media Law Project, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong

Stephen Lau, JP Chairman, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Hong Kong; first Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong

Connie Lau Chief Executive, Hong Kong Consumer Council; member of the General Council and Executive, Consumers International

Brendon Lynch, Director of Privacy Strategy, Trustworthy Computing Group Microsoft

Charles Mok, Chairman, Internet Society Hong Kong

© International Institute of Communications, 2008