Government policy
Earlier this week, a draft of the Singapore Data Protection Bill was introduced to the Singapore parliament. This draft follows a MICA consultation on a prior draft and removes some of the more controversial aspects of the prior draft, most notably a provision that attempted to assert extra-territorial jurisdiction. Although this will be a significant change…
Regular readers will know that I am slowly working my way around the telecoms markets of SE Asia. Thailand has been a recent focus, culminating in a two-day trip to Bangkok to try to understand the market dynamics behind the recently announced 3G auctions. The auction is reported to be for 45 MHz of spectrum in 5MHz lots in…
I will be spending next week in Mumbai and Delhi (with @singarbitration), and in preparation have been contemplating the impact of the recent budget proposals on foreign investment, and in turn the implications for the Indian economy. Before going on any trip, I like to remind myself of some basic economic facts, so my trusty EIU ‘World…
Following recent political reforms in Myanmar and the recent electoral success of Aung San Suu Kyi‘s National League for Democracy, Myanmar is currently flavour of the month as an investment destination, and could soon see significant investment in telecoms infrastructure. However, whilst there are opportunities Myanmar is starting out on a long journey that could be derailed very…
The wheels of European legislation have slowly turned, and last week Europe adopted a five-year radio spectrum policy programme, at Parliament’s second reading under the co-decision procedure. Readers will recall that last summer two key issues remained outstanding between the Council of Ministers and Parliament – the date by which the 800 MHz band should…
I have been experiencing an interesting shift in the way that I advise clients on risk as part of my move from Europe to Asia. Almost a week after the Indian Supreme Court revoked 122 mobile licences on the grounds that their award was “totally arbitrary and unconstitutional”, which led to share price drops for some foreign…
Today’s blog post is courtesy of my friends and colleagues Clive Gringras and Claire Walker who have published a helpful guide to the new European Data Protection proposals. “Today, 25 January 2012, the European Commission unveiled its proposals for far reaching changes to EU privacy legislation. We foresee the Regulation being in force by 2015. Every aspect…
Apologies to readers for the long hiatus between recent blog posts. With hindsight (and English understatement), I may have rather underestimated the time that would be taken up in relocating personally from London to Singapore to set up our office there. It is not without irony that I find the time to write this by…
Mobile payment is a topic close to my heart, so I am delighted to be joining a distinguished panel at the International Bar Association‘s annual conference in Dubai this afternoon to discuss developments in mobile payment from a comparative perspective. The session is being run jointly by the communications, banking and technology committees of the IBA…
Today’s FT article by Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, highlights the importance of regulation for all the players in the on-line ecosystem – those building the pipes and plumbing of network infrastructure, those creating compelling content and services and those who provide search, aggregation or other services. His central thesis is that both regulators and market players should…
This week the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) published an opinion that concludes that: “the Data Retention Directive does not meet the requirements set out by the rights to privacy and data protection, for the following reasons: the necessity of data retention as provided for in the Data Retention Directive has not been sufficiently demonstrated; data…
European processes can seem labyrinthine, even to insiders. Whilst normal EU legislative processes are just about understandable, decisions and processes relating to spectrum are even more impenetrable than other processes as the EU doesn’t have exclusive competency – instead it needs to works alongside other bodies including the ITU and CEPT. The EU’s Council of…