Speakers include

Ed Richards, Chief Executive, Ofcom

Pearse O'Donohue, Head of Unit for Radio Spectrum Policy, European Commission

Fabio Leite, Deputy Director of Radiocommunication Bureau, ITU

Jim Connolly, Senior Spectrum Advisor, ComReg and Rapporteur for the review of spectrum use, Radio Spectrum Policy Group

Edgar Reihl, Director of Advanced Development, Shure, Inc.

Europe, along with the rest of the world, is seeing ever increasing demand for both wireless and mobile broadband, and with the ambitious targets of delivering 'broadband for all', set as part of the Commission's Digital Agenda, coupled with the development of other new technologies and applications such as M2M and cloud computing, these trends are only set to continue.

This has led to a squeeze on spectrum, and regulators at both a national and European level are constantly challenged with finding innovative new spectrum management policies that enable the efficiency of the available bandwidth to be maximized. One such method that is being explored is the use of dynamic techniques of spectrum sharing, and the introduction of new technologies, such as cognitive radio, which facilitate the opportunistic access to whitespaces.

Bringing together top level policy and decision makers from both Europe and beyond, this high-level forum will look at both the challenges and the opportunities that a shift to this more dynamic method of spectrum policy may provide, and as the Commission moves towards developing an EU policy for dynamic spectrum access, examine what the future shape of a shared spectrum market may be.

Issues to be covered at the event include:

Taking the first steps towards shared spectrum access - policy and technological considerations

- An overview of the plans for the introduction of white space technology in the UK
- Delivering the technology to enable dynamic spectrum access – where are we now?
- Overcoming the policy challenges to move dynamic spectrum access from concept to reality
- Outcomes of WRC12 for software-defined radio and cognitive radio
- Cognitive and software defined radio - Taking the first steps towards whitespace
- Mapping the shape of a future shared spectrum market
- What are the best methods of combining technical and business approaches for a more efficient use of spectrum?
- How can the protection of existing spectrum users be ensured, and can the dynamic model eventually be made beneficial to all users?