Disruptive innovation in the ICT industries, Brussels, 22-25 June 2014

摘要

The 25th edition of the European regional conference of the International Telecommunications Society (commonly known as ITS) took place in Brussels, the epicentre of digital policy-making in Europe, this year. The event was hosted in the prestigious Academy Palace next to the Royal Palace and the Belgian Parliament and brought together academics, policy-makers, industry analysts and representatives from telecom incumbents and challengers to discuss the future challenges of technological disruption to the telecom industry. Although telecom industries in Europe changed from state-owned monopolies to oligopolistic markets with commonly three to four operators (mobile and/or fixed-line) in the last two decades, telecom operators were still in quite a luxurious market position as they benefited from fairly large customer bases and high profit margins. The liberalization of the European telecom markets began in the 1990s, and the privatization of incumbent operators increased the level of rivalry, but did not make an end to the dominant positions of incumbent operators in most European countries. Thanks to the spectacular growth of mobile subscribers, bundled with broadband access and digital TV services, the industry was performing well and seemed to resist the upcoming challenges.