New report on the "Options for the Ubiquitous Internet Society"

The Commission has published an external study prepared by Rand entitled
"Trends in connectivity technologies and their socioeconomic impacts".
This study set out to review technology trends that relate to the notion of an emerging
ubiquitous Internet Society – renamed in the study as ‘Internet of X’. It aims at giving food for thought to elaborate new strategies for the period 2010 - 2020 after the termination of the i2010 programme. Suprizingly, the report also try to set a balance between ex ante and ex post regulation.

Some interesting quotes:

"Anticompetitive behaviour can’t always be detected or prohibited ex ante, but ex post remedies (after lockin has occurred) may be too late, and there may be no counterfactual evidence to demonstrate that alternatives are viable if lock-in is widespread. Moreover, many of the specific activities that firms might use for predatory purposes (e.g. proprietary standards, low “penetration” pricing, etc.) are also essential in order to attract complementary content and services to Internet platforms capable of providing effective competition. Therefore, conventional antitrust policy may be less effective than consumer protection policy or supporting activities that enable users to coordinate moves to superior entrants, and participatory self-regulation may be more effective than IPR policy in deterring or overturning “stealth patents” in public standards".

and in relation to spectrum:

"Spectrum allocation as powerful ex ante tool. Traditional ex ante regulation and ex post control of the wireless domain is increasingly difficult. Spectrum allocation can be a substitute (ex ante) policy instrument to support innovation, new technology, and more competition. However the use of auctions has lead to mixed outcomes in balancing different policy objectives (technical, economic, and societal) and much available spectrum is hoarded or left idle. Allocation chanisms are shifting towards a combination of market-based regulation, societal regulation and regulatory withdrawal’. The EU may monitor the effectiveness of these mechanisms and also support policy convergence and standards to support a strong internal market for hardware in Europe."