Middle East delegates attend 3GSM World Congress

Middle East telecommunications operators from the public and private sector assembled in Cannes this week to review the latest in technology at the 3GSM World Congress. AME Info was alongside regional giants like Etisalat and MTC attending this event.

The broad message from the global industry is that the high-speed Internet is soon going to be available everywhere. That means access to the Net from mobile phones with streaming video through 3G technology, and in-flight broadband access for your laptop.

3G has not been without its problems; a slow roll-out of services and a lack of handset availability, and then rather cumbersome handset functionality when they did arrive. But the manufacturers are sure that this is a thing of the past, and that 3G will prove to be the future.

On a more mundane level the use of Voice-Over-IP technology for international calls is something else that is becoming a reality with considerable implications for business and domestic users. And the elimination of long-distance call charges is also focusing telcos on other ways to make money.

Digital convergence is the theme of the age. One Microsoft presenter in Cannes showed how he could record TV in California by remote control through his mobile phone to his PC and then play it back on his mobile phone in Cannes from the PC in the USA.

It is this level of connectivity and convergence of technology that will become commonplace in the future, much in the way that the wonders of Internet banking have become normal to users.

All that is required is a user-friendly interface and high-speed broadband Internet access. The message from Cannes was that both are coming very fast.

In the same week Batelco announced its $56 million investment in broadband infrastructure to delivery high-speed Net access in Bahrain, and increasingly the differentiator for regional economies will be broadband Internet infrastructure in the way that used to be true for basic telephone services in the past.

One thing is quite certain, there is no avoiding this particular revolution, and as ever the early adopters that get it right will be the most successful.