Gulf Times
Doha, Mar 19: THE first-ever global wireless broadband summit is to be held on March 30 and 31 at the InterContinental Doha by Magenta Global, a business information provider from Singapore, with the support of ictQATAR, to chart the direction for 'the future of wireless broadband'.
Qtel is the exclusive platinum sponsor, and GreenPacket a silver sponsor for the event that brings together decision-makers from top regulators, key operators, wireless Internet service providers and solution providers from across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
The summit takes place in the background of wireless broadband booming in the Middle East with market growth rates of 25% to 100%.
In Africa, Wireless Broadband technologies have whole countries leap-frog into the Communication Age.
“All eyes are focused on WiMAX (Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access, a technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access), that became an International Mobile Telecommunications standard last October, and 3G is making headway around the region, with the take-up of the HSPA (high-speed packet access) standard,” a spokesperson said yesterday.
With the roll-out and certification of mobile WiMAX equipment starting in 2008, these two technologies stand in direct competition for the strongly growing markets in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
The speaker panel would elaborate on regulatory developments and plans in Jordan and Qatar, present strategies of wireline and fixed and mobile wireless broadband deployment.
They are to discuss the future of mobile operators in an evolving broadband space, and take a look at fixed-mobile convergence strategies with HSPA.
With mobile WiMAX equipment being rolled out and certified, the speaker panel would lay out the mobile WiMAX roadmap, give an overview of WiMAX adoption and profitability in the region, look at advanced broadband technologies, such as FTTA (fiber-through-the-air) and self-organising networks, and evaluate the combination of WiMAX and IMS.
On the business side, the speakers would look at wireless broadband deployment for rural and lower-GDP regions, return on investment of wireless broadband in East Africa, and the economics of wireless broadband.
The summit is to be opened with the host keynote regulatory address of ictQATAR executive director William Fagan, followed by the host industry keynote address of Qtel's chief operating officer Sheikh Fahad bin Jassim al-Thani.
The speakers panel also includes, among others, Mohamed Alwathiq Shaqrah, (director, Radio Spectrum Department, TRC Jordan), Fahad al-Shirawi (CEO, 2connectbahrain), Philippe Vogeleer (officer/secretary general, Jordan Telecom Group - Orange Jordan), Hicham Kerrouch (senior manager, New Technologies, Meditel, Morocco), Khalid al-Rifai (group CTO, VTEL Holdings), Turhan Muluk (chairman, MEA Regulatory Working Group, WiMAX Forum/Intel Turkey), Ali Saghaeian (chief analyst, Teyf, Iran), and Kai Wulff (managing director, Kenya Data Networks).