The Regulatory Environment for Future Mobile Multimedia Services is one of the themes covered in the 2006 series of the ITU New Initiatives Programme. This publication was prepared by a team of authors, led by Lara Srivastava of the ITU Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU). The cover design is by Jean-Jacques Mendez.

The telecommunications sector is undergoing a period of rapid change and transition. Fast-paced innovation in technology and services is affecting the way business, and daily life, is conducted. As such, the telecommunications industry is being re-shaped and re-invented. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of mobile and wireless communications.

The demand for radio-based applications continues to grow in line with the increasing mobility of the communication society. This demand can only be satisfied, however, if there is sufficient spectrum available. Furthermore, the pace of technological change, with accelerating cycles of innovation, calls for a regulatory regime that makes suitable spectrum available as quickly as possible.

The demand for radio-based applications continues to grow in line with the increasing mobility of the communication society. This demand can only be satisfied, however, if there is sufficient spectrum available. Furthermore, the pace of technological change, with accelerating cycles of innovation, calls for a regulatory regime that makes suitable spectrum available as quickly as possible.

The introduction of second generation wireless cellular telecommunications was seen, perhaps naïvely, as being unreservedly pro-competitive. Most countries issued more than one licence and many issued three or four – a few managed five or six – pointing to potentially adequate levels of competition. This was in contrast to the fixed network, which was then predominantly provided directly by the state or by incompletely privatised monopoly operators, perhaps with a decorative fringe of small competitors.

The scope for distribution is becoming increasingly narrow. Politicians and society need to focus once again on the roots of growth. Innovation is the most important source of economic growth. As cross-sectional technologies, information and communication systems are crucial innovation drivers. Germany would be well advised to tap into strategic growth fields in these segments in order to be able to play a leading role at international level.