On 26 June 2017, Hogan Lovells and Professor Phil Weiser (of the University of Colorado’s Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship) ran a client seminar on cutting edge issues in tech policy. Michele Farquhar, Peter Watts, Angus Coulter and Alice Wallace-Wright facilitated a lively debate covering US and EU perspectives on:
- lessons from the US spectrum incentive auction;
- the future of spectrum policy – addressing the competing policy aims of incentivising investment and facilitating new entry, the ongoing debate on how spectrum will be addressed in the proposed European Electronic Communications Code;
- network neutrality – the current FCC debate and regulatory design on both sides of the Atlantic;
- the competitive effects of consolidation in the media and tech industries; and
- ‘entrepreneurial leadership’ in government – what benefits can be reaped from a more imaginative approach to administration.
The Silicon Flatirons-Hogan Lovells collaboration continued at the International Spectrum Workshop in Paris on 28 June 2017. Hogan Lovells partners Michele Farquhar and Winston Maxwell joined leaders from across the globe in academia, government, industry, and civil society to discuss aspects of wireless spectrum management, including:
- whether or not the FCC should use a standard calculation for quantifying the risk of “harmful interference” in spectrum allocation decisions;
- the idea of using a multi-dimensional regulatory metric to facilitate spectrum sharing in unlicensed bands;
- possible improvements to spectrum award procedures that would ensure spectrum holders are incentivised to invest in their networks;
- centralized management of unlicensed spectrum;
- how to improve the FCC’s tools for tracking, identifying and resolving spectrum interference; and
- how public policy can be addressed in the standards setting process (looking at the case of 5G wireless standards).
Phil Weiser is the Hatfield Professor of Law and Telecommunications, and Executive Director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. He served as the Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation to the National Economic Council Director at the White House from April 2010 to June 2011 and, prior to that, he served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Professor Weiser is a member of Hogan Lovells’ Law & Technology Advisory Panel.