Media and Telecommunication Convergence Conference to pave the way for three hundred telecom and media leaders to discuss adoption of mobile multimedia services

The Media and Telecommunication Convergence Conference, organized by the Arab Advisors Group, will be held in Amman on 10-11th June 2004 with the participation of over 300 media and telecom leaders, to discuss the ways of merging this sectors in a bid to further contribute in the development of these vital sectors.

"Today, the voice is considered a basic service for any GSM operator, and in order to differentiate and revive competition between operators again, there is a definite need to provide a persuasive data content in the Arab region, which adds a value to user and at the same time drives more adoption and usage for a mobile phone." Said Jawad Abbassi, President and founder of Arab Advisors Group. "The Average data revenue share of total revenues in the Arab World is less than half of Europe's operators. Arab Advisors Group's research of the Arab mobile markets shows that cellular data revenues contribute between 4 to 8% of total cellular revenues. On the other hand, most of this revenue in the Arab World is user-generated SMS rather than data in the real sense of the word. When user-generated SMS, and fax services, are taken out the Arab data revenues drop by over 90%."

The two days conference, which will see the participation of 300 executives representing over 100 telecom and media enterprises, will offer participants the opportunity to outline and highlight the outcome of converging these vital markets to build competitive markets on regional and global level. This will lead to achieve higher data revenues and at the same time guarantees better customer satisfaction.

"The telecom operators have been cooperating with media recently. We have noticed that various programs and shows on Satellite channels are heavily depending on telecom users, GSM and fixed line. People are making enormous number of phone calls and sending unprecedented number of sms to participate in these programs. The result of this cooperation is high revenue for both telecom and media sectors. Still there is more to cooperate on. All these factors has driven us to gather media and telecom operators in the region to further discuss the opportunities which could lead to promote and develop these vital sectors in the region." Sami Sunna, Arab Advisors Research Manager noted.

On the sideline of the conference, an area has been designated for exhibition where participants will be showcasing their latest products and services in a bid to further promote the necessity of converging those sectors.

The main sponsors of the event are MTC the Kuwaiti Mobile Telecommunications Company and its Jordanian subsidiary Fastlink, the leading GSM operator in the Kingdom. The conference is also sponsored by Xpress, Jordan Telecom, Maktoob, CNBC Arabia, Orbit, Axiom Telecom and NAFES.