Deregulation and liberalisation of telecoms sector to be highlighted at CONNECT 2005

"The Middle East telecoms sector is one of the most dynamic in the world. A youthful population, complemented by governments and operators that have invested billions of dollars in the mobile network infrastructure, is demanding value-added and next-generation mobile services that have already been adopted in the more mature and advanced markets of the world," said Sabine Enthammer, Executive Director, IIR Telecoms & Technology, organizers of the event.

"Our participation in CONNECT 2005 gives us an opportunity to demonstrate our strategies and strength in a sector that is being re-defined through innovation and vision," said Marwan Al Ahmadi, Strategy Advisor MTC Group, one of the speakers at the summit.

"MTC would like to emphasise the fact that the Middle East holds enormous potential for mobile services with market analysts predicting 85 per cent growth by 2010," added Al Ahmadi. He will unveil the company's vision to become an international player with a projected estimation of 5 million customers by 2005 and 15 million by 2011. He will also discuss the role the industry can play in job creation in the region.

Al Ahmadi's discussion will highlight the challenges of deregulation and liberalisation in the Middle East, with a focus on the need to do more on the part of mobile operators to serve the interests of customers. Ahmadi will deliver an overview of the cutting edge technologies, such as 3G and EDGE, that MTC has already introduced in Bahrain. His speech will cover key growth areas including data services as well as business services.

Other confirmed speakers at the summit include, Mohammad Hassan Omran, CEO, Etisalat; Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawas, Managing Director, Mobile Telecommunications Company, Oman; Khalid Al Kaf, CEO, Mobily; Harri Koponen, General Manager and CEO, Wataniya Telecom; Luc Savage, Chief Strategy Officer, Jordan Telecom; Ross Cormack, CEO, Nawras; Ricky Watts, Solutions Marketing Director, Motorola Networks EMEA and Andras Kondor, Vice-President, CRM Consumer Marketing, T-Mobile International.

The four-day summit will present case studies and overviews from representatives of various regional and international operators. Among the key topics to be discussed will be; strategies for operator growth, competition regulation, management of mobile content while maximising content revenue, development of new creative business models, targeting of enterprise customers, the role of internet protocol (IP), making 3G a high-volume market, extending the success of SMS and optimising prepaid customer spending

Now in its second year, CONNECT 2005 fulfils the growing demand for knowledge sharing and meaningful dialogue between mobile operators, content providers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs), solutions vendors and other telecoms vendors and manufacturers.

In addition to the main sessions there will be specifically designed forums on key topics such as new technologies, applications and mobile entertainment content. Three post-summit workshops will take place on May 31 and June 1 focussing on Developing Content Services; Maximising Opportunities in De-regulated Telecoms Markets; and Interconnection.

The event is organised by IIR Telecoms & Technology, sponsored by Etisalat, Mobile Telecommunications company, Motorola, TeraData and Al Tamimi and is supported by the Mobile Entertainment Forum and Mobile2win. The four-day summit will be held from May 29- June 1, 2005 at the JW Marriot Hotel in Dubai.