The ITS Conference – Where Regulation & Policy meet Technology

Some years ago, as a freshly graduated telecom engineer, I used to think that this is only our worrisome to make the industry progress thus only engineers are obliged to turn the wheel of industry and make all the impossible possible. After some time, when I started researching in interdisciplinary studies by combining telecommunication and economics, I recognized that I was wrong before and now it is time to combine different aspects such as technology, regulations, standardization and economy altogether in order to create a fare system that is capable of serving the needs. But still I could not see that any other group of researchers may even look into our dilemmas in the telecommunication industry from any other point of view.
After attending the European regional International Telecommunication Society (ITS) conference, I recognized that my notion of the big picture somehow needs to be changed again. The main reason was that I came to the conclusion that there are other groups of researchers (non-engineers) that also consider the telecom industry as their own research focus. They presume telecom engineers just as an enabler for better technology; more or less the exact opposite presumption of telecom engineers regarding policy makers and so on. I have attended a series of presentations regarding Regulation, Standardization and Trends & Management in which regulators and economists where presenting their ideas of optimizing the telecom world while it seemed that they have forgotten about the technology that is one of the main drivers. Surprisingly, when my colleagues where presenting their techno-economic researches they were surprised how relevant those topics are although where discussions were more into technical details it seemed that some parts of the audience were somehow lost.
Now that it is obvious that such opposite viewpoints exist, it determines the fact that a synthesis of different disciplines would be the missing ring or the so-called interpreter that is missing; a major enabler that seems to be forgotten time to time, and not only by the technologists but also by the policy makers and regulators.

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