Report on the 11th LIRNE.NET Executive Training Course on Regulation, 25 February – 3 March 2007, conducted by LIRNEasia and CONNECTasia Forum Pte.Ltd.

Rohan Samarajiva, Course Director

The 11th LIRNE.NET course on “Telecom Reform: Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence,” was held February 25th – March 3rd, 2007 at the Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. It was attended by 33 persons from 13 countries, ranging from Mongolia to Congo and South Africa to Bhutan.

Among the participants were 13 persons from regulatory agencies, including three members of regulatory collegiums. Eleven persons from the management of telecom operators, and nine from research organizations, universities and civil society made up the balance. Twenty were men; and 13 women.

The course had two components: a conventional lecture and assignment based module of five days and one and a half days of research presentations. In all, the participants had the benefit of listening to 28 speakers from research organizations, universities, regulatory agencies, operators, and international organizations (both ITU and World Bank) over an eight-day period. One speaker, Professor Bill Melody, who was unable to attend due to medical reasons, spoke on two occasions via Skype.

The course included a team assignment involving data and communication skills. Of the five teams, three were recognized as TelePhontastic, TelePerseverance and TeleGenic.

The keynote address at the opening session was delivered by Dr Hans Wijayasuriya, CEO of Dialog Telekom of Sri Lanka on behalf of Telekom Malaysia International. The address at the awards banquet was made by Mr M. H. Au, Director General of Telecommunications, Hong Kong China. Ambassador K, Kesavapany, Director of the Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore, co-organizer of the research component, spoke at its inaugural session as did Mr Evan Due from the IDRC, the funder of the research meeting.

The course evaluations were extremely positive, with only three items receiving average scores below 4 on a five-point scale (airport transfer (3.43), hotel facilities (3.86) and hotel location (2.43)). In actual fact, the hotel was ideal for a course of this nature, though the participants were somewhat frustrated by the distance to the city center and the frequency of the hotel’s airport shuttle). Most importantly, none of the lectures and assignments got scores below 4/5, with all topics and speakers being very highly rated.

The presentations made are available for download below:

February 26, 2007

1. Introduction to the course

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

2. Benefits of reform and regulation

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

3. What do users at the bottom of the pyramid want? Survey research from five Asian countries

Harsha de Silva | Download Presentation

4. State of the art: Regulatory priorities in 2007

Bill Melody | Download Presentation

5. Market entry and scarce resources 1 (emphasis on licensing issues), including demo of infoDev Toolkit

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

6. Measuring regulatory and sector performance to meet the challenges of legitimacy

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

February 27, 2007

1. Market entry and scarce resources 2 (emphasis on spectrum issues)

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

2. What regulators can do to facilitate universal service: Universal Service Funds and least-cost subsidy auctions

Harsha de Silva | Download Presentation

3. Asymmetric regulation, including new approaches to price regulation

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

4. Interconnection & inter-operator access

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

February 28, 2007

1. Periodic recalibration of the regulatory mechanism, including meeting the challenges of convergence

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

2. Alternative regulatory practices and alternative dispute resolution

Rohan Samarajiva | Download Presentation

3. From service-specific to unified licensing: Problems and prospects

Rajendra Singh | Download Presentation

4. Unbundling the local loop and regulatory measures to encourage broadband

Rajendra Singh | Download Presentation

March 1, 2007

1. The challenges and opportunities of VoIP

Tim Kelly | Download Presentation

2. Pricing, billing and interconnection in the Next Generation Network

Tim Kelly | Download Presentation