James Allen

Regulation is a complex area, and it requires expertise. That needs our senior staff to be unusually hands-on.

James is a Partner and heads up our Regulatory practice. He works with operators, public policy teams, regulators and governments seeking to enable effective competition in markets for telecoms services. His expertise provides guidance to regulators or policy makers weighing up whether or not to intervene in a market, and what would be the most appropriate remedies, underpinned by quantitative evidence as well as benchmarks for and against.

Over his career, James has used his creativity and attention to detail on regulatory projects of real significance and complexity; projects vary in length from 3 days to over 10 years. One example involved regulatory archaeology, going back over decades to identify the original evidence for the regulation and building a robust case for why a specific change was not in line with past decisions. Much of his work is focused on leading teams devoted to cost modelling and revenue modelling, translating what economists, financiers and technologists mean by cost to provide a consistent view (and a consistent language) that all parties can align with.

For James, one of the most rewarding areas of the job is to find an elegant solution to a complex problem, ideally one that is appropriate to the materiality of the problem, and appropriate for the resources of the client.

James is currently exploring whether there will be a need for guidelines regarding the use of AI in areas such as automated network configuration given its potential impact on the regulatory obligations of telecoms operators.

Outside work, James is a fan of the visual arts and of the BBC Proms, is an amateur choral singer, and is an amateur visual artist in several media. He also likes novels with sci-fi, speculative fiction or magical realist themes including those of Neal Stephenson and Iain (M) Banks.