Engaging with Stakeholders – BEREC’s Study Trip to North America

Each year, BEREC organises a visit to a non-member country to gain insights from the local electronic communications markets and digital ecosystem. The BEREC delegation meets representatives of the NRA, the relevant ministries, as well as incumbent operators, new entrants and other stakeholders in the industry. Past destinations include Japan and China.

This year from 9th to 13th April, the BEREC Chair for 2018 Mr Johannes Gungl (RTR), and Vice-Chairs Mr Sébastien Soriano (ARCEP), Jeremy Godfrey (COMREG), Mr Dan Sjöblom (PTS), Mr George Michaelides (OCECPR) and Mr Vladica Tintor (RATEL), accompanied by Ms Elisabeth Dornetshumer (RTR) and Ms Anne Lenfant (ARCEP) travelled to Canada to meet institutional and industrial stakeholders.

The meetings were held in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. They covered several topics that are of interest for BEREC and the evolution of the digital environment in Canada. The delegation discussed with the local NRA (CRTC), the ministry responsible for spectrum issues (ISED), operators and with organizations in the digital environment. The main topics were 5G, net neutrality and how to incentive investment and broadband deployment.

The study trip was an occasion of the BEREC Chair and Vice-Chairs to engage in discussion with the Canadian Counterpart CRTC and to build a relationship for further cooperation.

On their way home, the delegation made a stop in Washington, to visit the colleagues of the FCC, the FTC and the NTIA to discuss with them latest issues on spectrum and 5G. BEREC was also interested in an update on the latest net neutrality discussions in the US.

BEREC will publish a report on the findings of the study trip soon.

Photos: 

(above left) Meeting with CRTC - George Michaelides (OCECPR), Vladica Tintor (RATEL), Claude Doucet (CRTC), Jeremy Godfrey (COMREG), Dan Sjöblom (PTS), Sébastien Soriano (ARCEP),
Ian Scott (CRTC), Dre Caroline J. Simard (CRTC), Johannes Gungl (RTR), Chris Seidl (CRTC), Scott Shortliffe (CRTC).

(above right) Meeting with FCC - Sébastien Soriano (ARCEP), Dan Sjöblom (PTS), Jeremy Godfrey (COMREG), Ajit Pai (FCC), Johannes Gungl (RTR), George Michaelides (OCECPR),
Vladica Tintor (RATEL).