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Regulation in action
The Internet of Things: when regulation teams up with innovation
Preparing for the Internet of Things revolution is the challenge set out in the White Paper that Arcep published on 7 November, to coincide with its symposium, "IoT: inventing pro-innovation regulation". The fruit of a collaborative process - with France's National Frequency Agency (ANFR), the National Network and Information Security Agency (ANSSI), the Directorate-General for Planning, Housing and Land Management (DGALN), the Directorate-General for Enterprise, (DGE), the French data protection authority (CNIL) and France Stratégie - the document aims both to map out the challenges surrounding this emerging market and serve as a roadmap for Arcep. Five key issues have been identified as vital to enabling an innovative and well-run Internet of Things to flourish, including the availability of multiple, reliable and affordable connectivity networks, along with access so scarce resources, such as frequencies, and security.
To provide market stakeholders with it support and expertise, Arcep announced that it will be creating three dedicated instruments:
| | - | The "start-up and trials" office, a one-stop point of contact for start-ups, local-authorities and businesses wanting to conduct trials and experiments;
| | | - | The "unlicensed frequencies" portal, for providing market players with information on the regulatory framework governing unlicensed spectrum, and to detail any quality of service issues that exist in each band;
| | | - | Arcep's thematic workshops, which provide a forum for open dialogue and exchange between public authorities and market players. |
The objective: to define pro-innovation regulation that encourages a profusion of initiatives, supports entrepreneurs and gives users the confidence to dive right in. For the regulator it is also a "hymn to letting go," to quote Arcep Chairman, Sébastien Soriano, in the HuffingtonPost.
Find out more
Arcep's dedicated Internet of Things website
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| On our radar | | Pilar del Castillo Vera, MEP
Pilar del Castillo Vera, a Member of the European Parliament from Spain (Group of the European People's Party), and a member of its Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), will be the European Parliament's rapporteur on the new European telecoms code.
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| |  | | News from around the world
GAFA interested in submarine cables
A few weeks back, Google and Facebook announced the construction of the Pacific Light Cable Network, a submarine cable measuring close to 13,000 km that will run from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, whose construction is set to begin in 2017 and be complete by 2018. An announcement that echoes other projects recently put into action by Microsoft and Amazon, two internet companies that are also investing in submarine cables, which are a vital part of the internet's global mesh and which today are paid for by telecom carriers. For internet giants, submarine cables represent an important path to gaining control over their data traffic and quality of service.
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Arcep LIKES
2016 Open Government Partnership Global Summit
This year France will host the 4th Open Government Partnership Global Summit (OpenGov) from 9 to 16 December.
Founded in 2011 by eight countries, the OpenGov membership now includes 70 countries, along with NGOs and representatives of civil society, invested in:
- transparency in government action,
- open governance and government integrity,
- using digital technology to stimulate innovation and progress.
Actively engaged in implementing these principles, Arcep will take the floor at this global summit to talk about its data-centric approach to regulation, and the crowdsourced methods and tools it plans on introducing.
Find out more
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| Field notes
"Town centre not-spot" programme: 3G comes to Faucompierre in the Vosges!
 Bringing connectivity to every part of France, and particularly mobile access in the country's more sparsely populated areas, is a top priority for Arcep. To this end, working closely with the Government, Arcep is taking three courses of action: proposing rollout obligations to the Government, ensuring these obligations are met and employing data-centric regulation, in other words keeping citizens informed on coverage and quality of service.
On 15 October, Arcep attended the inauguration of the 3G base station in Faucompierre, in the Vosges. Financed and built by the country's four mobile operators, as part of the "town centre not-spot" programme, the purpose of this tower is to provide voice/SMS and broadband services to the surrounding towns that are currently bereft of mobile coverage.
3,800 town centres are concerned by this programme, and Arcep is working to ensure that operators have brought 3G coverage to all of them by mid-2017.
Scoreboard on mobile rollouts in sparsely populated areas | |
| Meanwhile in Brussels
France's superfast broadband programme approved!
On 7 November, the European Commission endorsed France's "Plan très haut debit" superfast broadband scheme, saying it is compatible with European rules on State aid. This plan, which aims to provide complete nationwide superfast broadband coverage by 2022, has projected an investment of €13 billion on superfast network rollouts in France, including €3 billion in State subsidies. The European framework requires a guarantee that public financing does not replace private funding, to ensure proper use of public monies, Commission also ensures that the networks this spending will finance will provide full access to all operators in a non-discriminatory fashion, at access prices that will be supervised by Arcep.
Find out more 
Arcep, telling it like it is
 "To coincide with the publication on 29 November of the Digital Market Barometer (Baromètre du Numérique) for 2016, we will be making all of the data from this survey since 2007 available as open data files.
The Digital Market Barometer is a benchmark report on digital technology ownership and take-up levels in France, for which more than 2,000 people are surveyed.
Making all of the finding since 2007 - 10 whole years - available online on Data.gouv.fr required harmonisation efforts to create reusable files. This has given the survey even more value-added: developers, businesses, researchers, sociologists and journalists will be able to use these data to produce new analysis, with a fresh perspective.
This process is also part of a broader policy in support of transparent public data, as France prepares to host the Open Government Partnership Global Summit in December."
Baptiste Amar
Policy officer for the "Market Observatory" unit | |
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Mark your calendars
Digital Market Barometer - 29 November 2016
Why do younger users prefer instant messaging? How do French people score the quality of their mobile connections, notably in sparsely populated areas? How many own a smartphone? What are the main ways they use the internet? What prevents them from shopping online? How do they perceive e-government services, and what do they expect of them?
Visit Arcep's website on 29 November to discover all of the findings of the 2016 Digital Market Barometer, produced jointly by Arcep, the General Council for the Economy (CGE) and the French Digital Agency (Agence du Numérique).
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 | 30 November and 1 December 2016 in Helsinki
Slush 2016
The benchmark international conference from northern Europe devoted to innovation, Slush connects investors and start-ups, to help build new projects.
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23 and 24 November 2016 in Paris
TRIP autumn 2016
AVICCA will be hosting the autumn edition of its "Territoires et réseaux d'initiative publique" (Regions and public initiative networks) symposium on 23 and 24 November. The Plan France très haut debit superfast broadband scheme, public initiative networks, mobile coverage, not-spots and smart regions will be the focal topics. Arcep will be taking part in a workshop on local authorities and French overseas territories.
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1 and 2 December 2016 in Luxembourg
Annual Fratel meeting
The network of French-speaking telecommunications regulators (Fratel) will be holding its 14th annual meeting, this time on the topic of "How to enable efficient electronic communications network rollouts?" Arcep Chairman, Sébastien Soriano, will be talking about the ties between telecom regulation and proactive digital regional development policies. Arcep Executive Board member, Jacques Stern, will moderate a roundtable devoted to tools for implementing and monitoring the progress of digital regional blueprints.
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15 December 2016 in Paris
Spectre et Innovation Conference
This year's Spectrum and Innovation conference, hosted by France's National Frequency Agency (ANFR), will have as its central theme: "Spectrum management: what strategy to keep pace with changing consumption habits?" and will spotlight 5G and enterprises' digital transformation.
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