State monopolies challenged by telecom deregulation

Organisers of the Telecoms World Middle East 2006 conference are aiming to tackle the challenges of deregulation and liberalisation at the event through the presentations of operator CEO's and top telecom strategists. The conference, organised by Terrapinn, is set to take place from December 10-13 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai.

'State monopolies are preparing to become aggressive competitors in liberalized markets, and they are also just beginning to adapt to dealing with an independent regulatory body. This is going to affect their product and services strategies, their marketing strategies and will impose a cultural change within the monopolies' working environments, putting their market power to the test,' said Edward Haines, Conference Director for Telecoms World Middle East, Terrapinn. 'The conference agenda is researched locally, in order to dissect the key issues and challenges to maximum revenue generation and market penetration.'

The conference will delve into the impact of liberalization and privatization on the mobile market, in terms of how regulators can facilitate fair competition for new entrants as well as different approaches to building lucrative inter-operator relationships. The industry figures discussing this topic will include Carlos Riera, chief executive officer, Kalaam Telecom, Michael Grenfell, partner, Norton Rose and Ineke Botter, chief executive officer, Alfa Telecom. Other speakers on the agenda include Osman Sultan, chief executive officer, Du, Saad Demyati, vice president, STC and Khalid Sherif, director, MobiNil.

'The high-level profile of the speakers means that the content and the insight are coming from the region's key decision makers within the telecom sector,' Haines added. 'Full market deregulation will cause a change in strategic direction for operators, especially in a region where expansion beyond the home-market is a fast-growing trend. Business models will change and we will see more and more focus on converged service offerings. Telecoms World Middle East will highlight all of these industry issues, as the key players start to set the market pace for 2007.'

TelecomsWorld Middle East is organised by Terrapinn, publishers of Total Telecom magazine and organisers of the Carriers World series of events. The conference is sponsored by Siemens, TeliaSonera International Carrier, Redback Networks, France Telecom, Qualcomm, LCC, Telecom Italia Sparkle, VSNL International, Oracle and Norton Rose.