So what makes telcap different from the rest? Well, it's the power of three --first of all telcap provides knowledge and educates about the business innovation for the new age of wholesale Telecommunications; second, its capacity magazine is the only monthly publication that focuses on the latest business techniques and strategies for bringing innovation and efficiency to the global wholesale telecommunications industry targeting the senior most personals from operators, carriers, service providers, metro-fibre providers, system integrators, equipment providers, and oss providers and third, telcap's conferences and trainings consists of a global footprint and attract the "who’s who" of telecom players.

There were few compliments and a lot of criticism about the current state of telecommunications infrastructure and bandwidth capacity of middle east and north africa as the audience participation made the event more interactive. Keynote address was delivered by walid irshaid, president, middle east, flag telecom. A wealth of knowledge was shared by the speakers and it was complimented by the comments from the audience. Panels were the dominant form of information exchange at the conference. Some of the challenging issues facing telecommunications in middle east & north africa discussed were shaping the growth of the wholesale telecommunications marketplace: liberalization and growth opportunities, in-depth wholesale market overview and analysis: key drivers of demand, growth opportunities and market trends, developing a successful wholesale business model, evaluating level of investment necessary in voip and next-generation networks: delivering converged and value-added services, metro area networks and local access markets: new developments to overcome local access challenges, the business application of carrier ethernet, current developments and future opportunities in the wholesale markets in egypt, saudi arabia, uae, bahrain and jordan. Moderators included mark kemp, ceo and editor-in-chief, capacity magazine, tony marson, senior analyst, yankee groups, alexander brown, associate, simmons & simmons, mohsen malaki, senior program and consulting manager, idc.

Speakers included walid irshaid. President, middle east, flag telecom, dr. Mohammed omar, president & ceo, integrated telecom company, mark phimister, managing director, emea, ibasis, rashid ai-snan, ceo, etisalcom, mohsen malaki, senior program and consulting manager, idc.tom wheadon, partner, simmons & simmons, philippe millet, vice president, customer marketing & development, france telecom, neil templeton, head of industry market management, flag telecom calvin lee, vice president, asia pacific and middle east, deutsche telekom international carrier sales & solutions (icss), richard mcbride, director, strategic futures, intec; gianmarco badii, director, globla ip & data services, telecom italia sparkle, steve whipps, general manager & president, emea, riverstone networks,

Lorenzo micheletti, regional director semea, nextone communications, mark phimister, managing director, emea, ibasis, andrey anikin, commercial director, mera systems, gary holland, director of marketing emea, riverstone networks, fadi georges kaouk, marketing/account manager, edch emirates data clearing house, abdulla k. Ai-khalifa, managing director, lightspeed communications, hani hafez, sales, middle east & africa, lucent technologies, andrawes snobar, senior research analyst, arab advisors group, maan al sabi, business development director, flag telecom, rashid al-snan, ceo, etisalcom, yacoub khalil snobar, senior vice president, integrated telecom company Conference and exhibition sponsors included flag telecom, river stone networks, intec, interoute, nextone, rostelecom, simmons & simmons, verizon business and ibasis

Perhaps, the most interesting presentation was by tom wheadon, partner, simmons & simmons which established a direct relationship between the quality & quantity of telecommunications infrastructure & bandwidth in a region to its social and economic development. No wonder the most advanced next genertation networks (ngns) are popping up at unexpected places such as kosovo and sudan who want to leap frog, while the incumbents in 'developed' countries are still scratching their heads about migrating to ngn and trying to salvage the existing infrastructure. They need to understand that legacy tdm switches will not be around forever or the technical support for them. Migration is the only way it is not a question of if but when. Events like this serve as a beacon for these decision makers.