- Nokhanyo Yolwa
- Ntsibane Ntlatlapa
Intermediate
- Bank transfer
- Credit card
Event organizer(s)
Description
The course highlights the shifts in telecoms regulation, regulation for e-commerce and digital government, regulation for cybersecurity, and skills requirements for regulatory professionals and leaders. In 2026, technology trends in 5G, artificial intelligence applications, cloud computing and Internet of Things are key areas of interest as they reshape economic sectors like agriculture and digital trade, and social sectors like public health and education. This reshaping places new requirements for future oriented regulation. These focus areas are each extensive fields in their own right, hence each of the sessions tackles a distinct topic, highlighting key issues. Participants are offered a short list of relevant materials as essential reading, in addition to interactive lectures. The reading material provides the foundation for accessing ”state of the art” content and deriving benefit from the sessions.
The course is particularly suitable for early and mid-career regulatory professionals, regulatory researchers and decision-makers. It is also relevant to professionals active in policy and law-making, in particular those working in national and state government policy units, in national and regional regulatory authorities, those engaged in legal drafting and those responsible for parliamentary oversight. Also, professionals in regulated entities, in regulatory departments of mobile operators, lawyers, consultants and NGOs involved in the telecoms and digital enablement sectors should attend. The course will enhance your understanding of governance, policy, legal and regulatory trends in telecoms, in digitally enabled business, in competition regulation and in trade facilitation, that enables regional economies and the global digital economy. The course caters for participants from all regions of the world, with previous participants coming from Benin, Canada, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lithuania, Morocco and Thailand.
An undergraduate degree qualification is preferred. Where the entrant has three or more years active sector experience, this requirement may be waived.
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Actively follow the extensive range of reports available showing changes in telecoms and digital services markets, including trends in the policy, legal and regulatory landscape
- Comment on the wide scale transition to digital economies and the reshaping of key economic and social sectors
- Identify the telecoms policy and regulatory issues relevant to their own institutional contexts and the evolving digital economy in their respective countries
- Examine a few of the specific features of telecoms, digital communications and future-oriented regulation
- Critically analyse digital innovation, digital transformation, sector-based competition and regulatory innovation
- Apply basic research skills for regulatory professionals
- The activities for the online instructor-led course will take place for 3 hours each week (one 3-hour lecture one day per week) for 5 weeks, from the week of 2 March to the week of 30 March 2026, running from 12h00 to 15h00 UTC (Universal Time Consolidated). We have chosen UTC because it is a standard time across the globe, noting that a few countries change their time zones when changing from summer to winter and vice versa.
- Interactive online lectures presented by subject matter experts
- Online tutorials on using specific literature search, reading and annotated bibliography techniques that enable regulatory professionals to read extensively and conduct regulatory research
- Discussion forum
- Self-study: Pre- and post-course reading of recommended reading material
- Single group assignment: Online verbal and slide presentation
- Single short essay-type individual assignment: To be submitted for assessment on the ITU Academy platform
- All readings are also available on the ITU Academy platform
Attendance requirement = participants must attend and participate in at least 80% of all online activities, in other words a minimum of 12 of the 15 hours of online activities, as confirmed in the daily register
Two assignments will constitute 100% of the assessment for the course, composed of:
- Group assignment weighting = 40%
- Individual assignment weighting = 60%
Each participant will need to pass both the group assignment and the individual assignment, with the combined total score being higher than 70%, as is required to obtain the ITU certificate.
A participant who does not achieve the combined score of greater than 70% will be granted only one opportunity to revise or to rewrite.
Sample of key readings for the course as a whole :
Please note that the reading material is offered as a mini-library relevant to the subject matter of the course. Where there are multiple readings for the same topic, eg the GSMA publications, participants need only read the relevant report for their geographic region, though all are also welcome to explore readings for other geographic regions.
ITU. (2020). Digital regulation handbook. ITU & The World Bank. https://www.itu.int/en/myitu/Publications/2020/08/31/09/09/Digital-Regulation-Handbook
Also available at http://handle.itu.int/11.1002/pub/81630556-en [All chapters]
Additional readings are provided to participants who formally register for the course.
Day 1 (2 March) : Disruptive technologies fashioning trends in communications sector reform
- Session 1: Evolution of technologies and networks for the digital economy
- Session 2: Disruptive technologies and digital transformation
- Session 3: Research skills and methodologies for regulatory professionals
- 21st century Technology foundations for regulatory thinking and doing
- Evolution of broadband technologies
- Emerging technologies, challenges for regulators and applications of regulatory impact assessment
- The nature of the digital economy, digital innovation and digital transformation
- Influence of emerging technologies on services offered by telecommunications operators and ICT service providers
- Innovation frameworks and ecosystems including tech hubs
- First steps in using the annotated bibliography technique to enhance regulatory research by regulatory professionals
- Briefing on group assignment
SAMPLE SET OF CORE READINGS
GSMA. (2025). The mobile economy 2025. GSMA. https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-economy/
Lanneau, R. (2021). Regulatory impact assessment. In A. Marciano, G. B. Ramello (Eds.), Encyclopedia of law and economics. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_649-2
Perez, C., & Leach, T. (2021). Beyond 4.0: Technological revolutions: Which ones, how many and why it matters: A neo-Schumpeterian view. Historical Background Paper WP7 - D7.1 https://www.beyond4-0.eu/storage/publications/D7.1%20Technological%20Revolutions:%20Which%20Ones,%20How%20Many%20%20And%20Why%20It%20Matters:%20A%20Neo-Schumpeterian%20View/BEY4.0-WP7-D7.1_Revised%20historical%20paper%20v3-PC-18429.pdf
Stork, C. (2020). Regulatory responses to evolving technologies (Chapter 7). Digital regulation handbook. ITU & The World Bank. https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/pref/D-PREF-TRH.1-2020-PDF-E.pdf
Day 2 (9 March) : Enabling digital economies through reform, innovation and regulation
- Session 4: Telecoms enabling digital business
- Session 5: Regional digital economies and the context of digital trade
- Session 6: Competition regulation for the digital economy
- Outline digital business today: Telecoms services enabling digital business in multiple sectors
- Regulatory issues that arise in the context of telecoms operators enabling digital business
- Telecoms services enabling trade: Quick overview of protocols for digital trade in key regional trade agreements
- Telecoms services enabling trade: Quick overview of regulatory issues
- Key discussion points in competition regulation for the digital economy
SAMPLE SET OF CORE READINGS
Note: It is important to be familiar with some of the key characteristics of the digital economy, in order to understand the most important regulatory issues and responses, hence the list of readings below presents a broad overview of telecoms enabling the digital economy and a few key readings on regulation.
Berggren, V., Inam, R., Mokrushin, L., Hata, A., Jeong, J., Mohalik, S., Forgeat, J., & Sorrentino, S. (2021). Artificial intelligence in next-generation connected systems. Ericsson White Paper. https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/white-papers/artificial-intelligence-in-next-generation-connected-systems
GSMA. (2024a). The mobile economy Sub-Saharan Africa 2024. GSMA. https://event-assets.gsma.com/pdf/GSMA_ME_SSA_2024_Web.pdf
GSMA. (2025a). The mobile economy Latin America 2025. GSMA. https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-economy/latam/
GSMA. (2025b). The mobile economy North America 2025. GSMA. https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/the-mobile-economy-north-america-2025
GSMA. (2025c). The mobile economy Europe 2025. GSMA. https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-economy/europe/
GSMA. (2025d). The mobile economy Asia Pacific 2025 GSMA. https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-economy/asiapacific/
Whish, R. (2024). Goals of competition law, [EU] Digital Markets Act, the role of technical expertise & more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Zja1dRjBc
Day 3 (16 March) : Future oriented regulation
- Session 7: Future oriented regulation: Trends in cybersecurity law, regulation and practice
- Session 8: Future oriented regulation: Regulatory design thinking, regulatory performance and regulatory effectiveness
- Building effective cybersecurity regulation to protect business and citizens’ rights
- Building effective cybersecurity regulation to address economic vulnerabilities
- Data protection and cybersecurity practice
- The power of regulation and the power of regulators: Building open economies through diffusion, access and adoption, (enabling industry, enabling digital services markets, enabling digital government, global trends in digital services, content regulation, and the transition to platforms), sectoral application (education/ health/trade/other), spectrum regulation, a new universality for a new digital divide
SAMPLE SET OF CORE READINGS
Chen, R. (2019). Policy and regulatory issues with digital businesses. World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/675241563969185669/Policy-and-Regulatory-Issues-with-Digital-Businesses
CoE. (2018). Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. Strasbourg, Council of Europe (CoE).https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/185?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=185
Karale, A. (2021). The challenges of IoT addressing security, ethics, privacy, and laws. Internet of Things, 15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2021.100420Weber, R. H., & Studer, E. (2016). Cybersecurity in the Internet of things: Legal aspects. Computer Law & Security Review, 32(5), 715-728. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2016.07.002
Weigel, W. (2021). Regulatory impact analysis meets economic analysis of law: Differences and commonalities. In A. Marciano, G. B. Ramello (Eds.), Encyclopedia of law and economics. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7883-6_750-1
Day 4 (23 March) : Digital innovation and digital transformation
- Session 9: Digital innovation and digital transformation: Insights for decision-making
- Session 10: Facilitated group exercise preparation
- Consider and interrogate the disruptive activities taking place in selected countries (based on which countries participants come from) as they transition into early stage (or second stage) digital economies (includes attention to agriculture, manufacturing, construction, banking and financial services, tourism, e-commerce, education, health, other)
- Analyse how new regulatory design thinking influences regulatory strategy and approaches to regulation, and regulatory effectiveness
- Plenary discussion: Guiding comments from the lecturers
Day 5 (30 March)
- Session 11: Foundational research techniques for regulatory leaders and professionals
- Session 12: Group presentations
- Using the annotated bibliography format to extract value from key readings in policy and regulation for the digital era
Tutors
Registration information
Unless specified otherwise, all ITU Academy training courses are open to all interested professionals, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, economic status and other diverse backgrounds. We strongly encourage registrations from female participants, and participants from developing countries. This includes least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries.
