Affiliation : Cullen International
Title : Head of Practice
Lecture : The interaction between technology and regulation in the communications sector

Short Bio	Peter Dunn leads the telecommunications and postal teams at Cullen International. Peter has more than 20 years experience in the communications sector, including working in the UK and Europe for Orange and for Colt, and for Digicel Group in the Caribbean. Peter has significant experience of regulatory and policy issues in the communications market in a wide range of different environments, including European and US approaches to regulation and the development of regulation in newly liberalised markets
Abstract	The presentation will examine the relationship between technological developments and sector-specific regulation in the electronic communications sector, using examples from the European Union. The presentation will be in three parts. What influences sector-specific regulation: how a number of diverse factors influence the direction and shape of sector-specific regulation: public policy, economics, law, commercial interests and technological developments. How technology can influence regulation in the communications sector, for example, how regulation focuses on the last mile bottleneck and how the market dynamics and regulatory focus change with the evolution to NGA networks. How regulation can influence technology in the communications sector, for example, how regulation creates incentives and disincentives for new technological developments. The overall aim is to illustrate that one of the major differentiators of regulation in the communications sector (and a huge challenge for the regulators) is that it must cope with the speed of technological development – in a way that is seldom seen in other “utility” sectors that are also subject to sector-specific regulation.