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Voices on the Latin American Forum for Educational Connectivity: Interviews
Listen to the contributing voices present at the Latin American Forum for Educational Connectivity.
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Julissa Cruz Abreu is a telecommunications expert with more than 20 years of experience as a public servant at the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), the Dominican Republic’s telecommunications regulatory body, where she has served, among other positions, as director of international relations, commissioner of compliance, and head of the regulation department. Cruz Abreu has been an active actor in the initiatives and development of the current INDOTEL’s regulatory framework.
From her leadership position in the telecommunications sector in the Dominican Republic and at the regional level in Latin America, Cruz Abreu has promoted the active participation of the country in the ITU P2C initiative, achieving the incorporation of new actors to the Partner2Connect coalition, an initiative that lays the foundations for a multi-sector integration with the common goal of achieving connectivity and a sustainable digital transformation in the Dominican Republic. Additionally, she worked in the operator regulation area of the National Commission of Markets and Competition of Spain and has participated as a speaker in international conferences on number portability, spectrum management, price regulation in telecommunications, gender equity, and inclusion in telecommunications and innovation industries. She has advised regulators in Central America in their processes of implementation of number portability, participating, in turn, as a teacher and lecturer in multiple seminars, workshops, and courses on telecommunications regulation.
Cruz Abreu has led the technical team of the regulatory body in various transformation projects in the telecommunications sector, such as the National Broadband Plan for the Dominican Republic, the coordination of the Connectivity and Access Axis of the Digital Agenda 2030, the subscription of concession contracts, the bidding of the radio spectrum for the deployment of 5G networks, the implementation of digital terrestrial television and the Connectivity Improvement Project for Digital Transformation with an investment of US$115 million. During her tenure, Cruz Abreu has promoted regulatory measures aimed at strengthening competition and innovation in the sector, including the identification of relevant markets subject to ex-ante control, the implementation of the regulatory sandbox, and the preparation and publication of the results of the measurement of the quality of telephony and internet service networks.
Similarly, through the Canasta Digital Project, the Dominican Republic is designing, for the first time in history, a targeted subsidy program conditioned to promoting digital skills development with a gender focus. The pilot program will provide digital literacy, equipment subsidies, and services for more than 2000 women heads of households located in different geographic regions. Cruz Abreu has also promoted the inclusion and dissemination of the rights of users, including socially inclusive initiatives in braille and sign language, supported by companies providing telephone and internet access services.
She holds a degree in accounting from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), a master’s degree in corporate finance from the same university, and has also specialized in regulatory economics at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, public services regulation at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), and price regulation in the telecommunications industry at the CEDET Foundation of Spain.
Cruz Abreu is an ambassador of connectivity for educational purposes at the Dialogue.
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