Conference on spectrum allocation and auctions

On Monday 16 November, the Ministry (in collaboration with Auckland University) hosted a conference on recent research into spectrum allocations and auction methodologies, presented by two senior economists from the US Federal Communications Commission, William Sharkey and Mark Bykowsky.
 

Drs Bykowsky and Sharkey travelled to New Zealand primarily to assist Dr Fernando Beltran (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Systems & Operations Management at the University of Auckland) in a research project on a proposed auction for the allocation of spectrum to wireless broadband access in the US. This work is in collaboration with the programme founded by the University of Auckland-based PING Research Group.
 

The event represented a unique opportunity for New Zealand to benefit from hearing the leading international experts in radio spectrum policy and auction methodology. The conference was well attended, with approximately 60 industry participants interested in recent research in spectrum allocation and spectrum auction trends. Some of the thinking from this forum will be given further consideration by the Ministry, for possible inclusion in the design of future New Zealand spectrum auctions.
 

PDF slides of the presentations are linked below.
Note | The information presented in the material does not reflect the views of the Ministry of Economic Development.

Dr William W. Sharkey is currently a senior economist with the Office of Strategic Planning at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. Earlier, he was a visiting professor at the Institut d'Economie Industrielle in Toulouse and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and was a member of the economics research group at Bellcore and at Bell Laboratories. Dr Sharkey has also served as a visiting professor at the Universities of Arizona and Pennsylvania. His research interests include the economics of regulation, the economics of telecommunications, cooperative game theory, cost allocation and the economics of networks. He is the author of two books: The Theory of Natural Monopoly and Cost Proxy Models and Telecommunications Policy. Dr Sharkey received a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.
 

Dr Mark Bykowsky is currently a senior economist with the Office of Strategic Planning at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. He advises the Federal Communications Commission on technical economic issues related to media ownership, spectrum policy and telecommunications regulation. He shares the distinction with one other person to be the only three-time winner of the Commission’s prestigious Excellence in Economic Analysis Award. Earlier he has been a senior partner with EonXchange, a senior economist with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Cable Television Association and a staff member of AT&T Communications. Dr Bykowsky holds a PhD in Economics from University of Colorado, Boulder.
 

Dr Fernando Beltrán is PING Research Group Director and Senior Lecturer in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department at The University of Auckland Business School. He teaches data communications and computer networking and has worked on the design of incentive mechanisms using an agent-based computational approach.

Conference programme