Ofcom has announced a major appointment with the hiring of current Amazon general manager Sachin Jogia to become the regulator’s new chief technology officer (CTO).
Jogia will join Ofcom in October after nine years at Amazon. He is currently the GM for Alexa Smart Home International, overseeing development of the company’s voice-activated services.
The regulator said that Jogia’s role will be to “lead Ofcom’s work to support innovation across the sectors regulating broadcasting, telecoms and wireless services,” through the use of recently extended powers via the Online Safety Bill and Telecoms Security Bill.
Speaking of the appointment, Jogia said: “I am honoured to join Ofcom to lead their technology organisation at a time when it is more important than ever to ensure children, vulnerable people and adults are protected while using the technology they take for granted every day.
“The Online Safety Bill is such an essential and pioneering measure, which will help technology flourish in parallel with implementing the right safeguards. I look forward to partnering with all tech platforms to secure greater accountability, while enabling innovation to thrive across the sector for UK citizens.”
Jogia brings previous experience from senior technology roles at AOL and advertising.com. He is also a trustee at City Year UK and chairs the British Heart Foundation’s Technology Advisory Group.
Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes said: “I’m delighted to welcome Sachin to Ofcom. His experience as a technology leader, having developed new products for one of the major global platforms, will be invaluable as we take on the new challenge of regulating online safety.
"This appointment shows that Ofcom’s mission can attract the very best talent and I’m looking forward to working with Sachin to build new teams and skills as we secure a safer life online for everyone.”
UK regulator Ofcom has announced its proposed licence fees for Arqiva and Airwave’s 412–414 MHz and 422–424 MHz paired spectrum.
Communications infrastructure and smart meter specialist Arqiva won the spectrum in a 2006 auction, with a 15-year initial no-fee licence period.
Arqiva traded part of the spectrum with Airwave in 2008, to enable the mobile communications network used by UK emergency services to become co-licensee.
With the free license period set to expire in October of this year, Ofcom has proposed that the fee will be set at £1,584,000 per year. The regulator claimed that this is “in line with what business radio users pay for a UK-wide licence in nearby bands”.
A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “We have assessed whether there is likely to be excess demand for this spectrum in future, and have come to the provisional view that this is likely. We are therefore proposing to set an AIP [administered incentive pricing] fee.
“Our assessment is that business radio users are likely to be the highest value alternative users, and therefore this fee should reflect the opportunity cost to business radio users of not being able to use the spectrum. We are also consulting on draft regulations to give effect to these proposed fees. We invite any comments on the proposals by 16 July.”
Motorola-owned Airwave has a contract to supply the TETRA-based Airwave network to UK emergency services until December 2022.
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