Dennis Ward
From the spring of 2000 until 2010, Dennis Ward was the Senior Economist and Auctioneer in Industry Canada’s spectrum management programme with primary responsibility for advising on domestic auction theory, design and implementation. Four SMRA auctions, 2 sealed bid and one “odds and ends” auction were run during that period raising about $6B in revenue.
Monitoring foreign auctions (eg European UMTS, FCC PCS and 700 MHz, Germany’s LTE auction) as well as studying innovative approaches (eg Ofcom’s Clock Combo and Sweden’s SMRA with switching rules) were other areas of significant interest. Analytic tools such as financial modelling, opportunity cost and optimal deprival were also employed in an attempt to determine appropriate market values for spectrum.
Professor Jean-Sébastien Lantz
Jean-Sébastien Lantz is a Professor at the University of Law at Aix-en-Provence in France and his book on financial economics won the Turgot Prize in 2005. He conducts research on the financing of technology projects and the valuation of licenses as intangible assets. His methodologies have been implemented in the telecoms, nuclear energy and biotechnology sectors, and used by organisations such as the mobile operator Orange and the Thai regulatory body, NTC.
Jan Willem van den Bos
Jan Willem is a telecoms specialist at global law firm SNR Denton, with particular expertise in wireless technology, licensing, infrastructure roll-outs, location-based services and strategic sourcing. He has extensive experience of advising regulators, governments and other public sector bodies and is currently advising Ofcom on the implementation of its white space spectrum ‘geolocation’ proposals. He has worked for several other telecoms regulatory authorities and governments on telecoms liberalisation and reform projects, including in the Bahamas, Oman, and the UAE. Previously, Jan Willem advised Ofcom on the successful award of 3.4 GHz public fixed wireless access licences, including the associated auction process. Prior to joining SNR Denton, he worked at the European Commission and at the Institute for Information Law.
Richard Womersley
Richard Womersley leads the telecoms and spectrum business at UK consultancy Helios. He has over 15 years' consulting experience in radio spectrum management, public telecoms and digital broadcasting. He is an experienced trainer and has conducted projects for regulators, operators, governments and end-users on issues covering national and international policy; regulation and its implications; pricing, auctions and licensing; service and technology roll-out; and interference.
Martin Sims
Martin Sims is a journalist and academic who specialises in communications policy issues. He set up PolicyTracker, the spectrum policy newsletter and has published articles on many facets of the subject. His work has been published in academic journals and books and he is a former editor of, the policy journal Intermedia. As a journalist he was a news editor in independent radio then worked for BBC network news. He has an honours degree and a masters degree in communication studies and until recently lectured at the University of East London.
