CEE-TP Launches First Executive Education Course

In March 2022, the Center for Executive Education in Technology Policy (CEE-TP), in the College of Engineering, delivered its first executive education course in its ICT in developing countries program. The course, Regulation in Today’s Competitive Telecommunications Environment, was offered in an online format with live, interactive lectures and classroom discussions delivered by video conferencing. 

This course was taught by Professor Marvin Sirbu, Professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Industrial Administration, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Information Networking Institute. Sirbu is also a member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council and he regularly teaches courses in telecommunications technology and policy, the economics of regulation, and management of innovation.

The course covered a wide range of technical, legal, and regulatory issues related to telecommunications systems, including broadband Internet, cellular, telephone, and over-the-top services. A consistent theme of the course was market competition, and its policy implications in areas such as ex-ante and ex poste regulation, pricing, antitrust, international trade, and requirements from the World Trade Organization GATS Telecom Annex.  The course includes a discussion of policies to address universal service and bridge the digital divide in a competitive market and on the important role of private sector multi-stakeholder groups.

Participants in the course came from Bangladesh, Cabo Verde, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, Somalia, Tajikistan, and Thailand.