Telecoms World Middle East kicks off with over 400 attendees

The first day of the conference was attended by 180 delegates, from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Algeria, the UK and Western Europe.

The opening session, Profiting in the MENA Telecoms Market, was addressed by Raghu Venkataraman, Executive Vice President - Corporate Strategy & Strategic Marketing, du, and Hans can den Broeck, the senior vice president of Siemens and Ross Cormack, chief executive officer, Nawras. The session elaborated on the power structure in the Middle East telecom market, creating competitive advantage through strategic partnerships and innovative market growth strategies from new market entrants.

"As operators begin to explore the potential of triple play services, content services will take a completely new shape and the revenue models are about to change," said Edward Haines, Conference Director for Telecoms World Middle East, Terrapinn. "Broadband, cable TV and telecom operators are all gearing up for the challenge of winning the customer and driving the greatest revenues. The question also remains as to who will be driving the adoption of triple play in the Middle East."

The afternoon sessions included a segment on market liberalisation, during which panellists debated the impact of deregulation on the Middle East market. Participants included Carlos Riera, chief executive officer, Kalaam Telecom, Michael Grenfell, partner, Norton Rose and Nadim Khater, director of IT, MTC Touch.

Telecoms World 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.