THE TERRAPINN GROUP WHICH IS BEST KNOWN for organizing the 'Carriers World' series of conferences and for publishing Total Telecom magazine, orchestrated the Telecoms World Middle East 2005 event at the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai from 4th to 7th December. Terrapinn, a business media company which owns a portfolio of B2B brands is no stranger to such world class events. Its expertise includes trade exhibitions, conferences, training solutions, and electronic and print publications. Rebecca Sloan, Marketing Manager for Telecoms World Middle East stated that despite the fact that this was their first venture in the telecoms industry in this region, the response had been highly encouraging and they look forward to repeating this event in 2006 with an even bigger presence.

2005 has been a healthy year for the global telecoms industry in general and for the Middle East telecoms industry in particular, and there was no better way to end 2005 than Telecom Worlds Middle East, which was the first and only strategic telecoms event of its kind in the region. While regional players have been expanding their foot print into the global arena, the global Telecom leaders have been showing interest in the lucrative telecom related investment opportunities in the Middle East market. Ettihad Etisalat launched Mobily, the second GSM operator in Saudi Arabia and The Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) acquired Celtel International in Sub-Saharan Africa. As I write this, The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in UAE announced that a second operator will start commercial operations by mid 2006 with a paid-up capital of Dh4 billion.

What made this CEO-level conference unique was its interactive format. Instead of just sitting through presentation after presentation, it offered a 'talk show format with panel discussions', something which has not been seen before in this region. In addition to this it offered 10 hours of networking opportunities for the participants which constituted the 'Who's Who' of the Telecom World, as only about 250 selected attendants including 30 of the top regional and global players were invited to this event. This conference was a nice change from the usual large trade shows which frequent this region.

SPEAKERS/ATTENDENTS:

Telecom decision makers who were welcomed to the conference by Nasser Bin Obood, Deputy CEO of Etisalat addressed key issues such as taking advantage of new market opportunities, value added services(VAS) and VoIP - the impact on voice services, meeting the needs of the enterprise market, fixed / mobile convergence opportunities, investment in Middle East telecoms, strategies for operator growth in the Middle East, fulfilling the broadband connecting carriers to the world IP peering and interconnection, liberalization and its effect on the market and potential.

Not many people can enjoy the opportunity of starting a GSM network from scratch; Ross Cormack, CEO of Nawras, the second GSM operator in Oman and CEO of Roshan, Karim Khoja got to do so they delighted the audience with their experiences. Meaning "light" in Afghanistan's two most widely spoken languages, Dari and Pashto, Roshan is not only a GSM operator in Afghanistan but it also brings a promise of hope, development and a brighter future for the people of Afghanistan. Directly employing over 500 people, 21% of whom are women; Roshan beat international companies such as Motorola USA and Vodafone UK to win the coveted Best Marketing Campaign Award for its "Light and Hope" campaign. What makes CEO of Roshan, Mr. Karim Khoja, who was also the founding CEO of Mobilink in Pakistan, unique is that he has done the 'GSM' thing multiple times, each time beating his own past success. When presented with a copy of IT Insight and a request for an exclusive interview, his cheerful answer was, 'it would be my pleasure'.

Key note speaker, Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), who has been recognized as the Middle East's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) CEO of the year and Dr. Amer Al Rawas, Managing Dirctor of Oman Mobile wished IT Insight well and were pleased when informed about its progress and achievements.. Sami Smeirat, CEO, Jordan Data Communications “Wanadoo” talked about fulfilling the broadband potential, while Khaled Rifai, Director Business Development, Lucent (ME) spoke about Fixed mobile convergence opportunities. Ali Korur, Regional Director of Eutelsat talked about the satellite solutions for residential, SME, SOHO and large Enterprise users. A lot of the attendants talked to IT Insight; 'First timers' such as the Pre-paid Phone card provider Haider Mawji, CEO of icardtelecom from UK and Amy Choi of WiderThan, a leading global provider of wireless entertainment solutions that enable Ringback Tones, Music On Demand, Games, Ringtones, and Inter-carrier Messaging from Korea told IT INsight that this has been their first trip to Middle East and they see a huge potential in the region. CEO of LANCK Telecom, from Russia and Gabriel Petrescu, Executive Director of Rokura echoed the same sentiments.

It was interesting to attend a conference about technology in which not much technology was discussed. As a matter of fact, the two most interesting presentations were from Enda Hardiman, Managing Partner of Hardiman Telecommunications from UK and Luc Dejonckheere, Principle Investment Officier of IFC, World Bank. Enda talked about offering financial, strategy and technology consulting, identifying and maximizing business opportunity for their clients and addressing international diversification strategies as well as market entry strategies, while Luc spoke about Investment options in the Telecom world and how The Telecom & Media Division provides long-term financing in emerging telecom markets focusing on new private sector projects, sustainable private enterprises that are expanding or modernizing, and state-owned enterprises that are clearly on the path to privatization. Their services include but are not limited to Hard currency and local currency term loans, Equity, convertible loans and other mezzanine financing, Partial guarantees of loans and bonds, Securitization, Risk management services, Resource mobilization services, including loan syndications, capital markets operations and securities underwriting.

SOLUTIONS:

In addition to the brilliant speakers, a number of exhibitors adorned the venue with their solutions. Shaheen Haque, Middle East Manager of Micromuse told IT Insight about his company which delivers industry-leading business and service assurance solutions to organizations worldwide. During the 14 years since inception, its flagship Netcool brand has become synonymous with scalable, realtime, end-to-end management of complex IT and telecommunications infrastructures. Its comprehensive range of Netcool solutions enable service providers, equipment providers, corporate enterprises, and government agencies to extract maximum value from their mission-critical applications, systems, and networks. Rokura from Romania presented their Data communications applications for mobile and fixed assets management (positioning, monitoring, messaging), Radio-communications equipment and services, Archiving and Document Management, Special equipment for digital recording and archiving of voice, data, image, Automated fuel management systems, and Technical services (installation, service, maintenance) solutions. Most interesting was their public warning system for natural disasters like floods, hurricanes and fires. Alina Mazare, Commercial Director of Camusat talked about their turn key sites solutions for Telecommunications, Radio links, microwaves, Broadcasting
Television, Cellular, Radio Telephone, Pager, Satellite Services
and Earth Stations. France Telecom presented their mobile, internet, bandwidth, voice wholesale solutions. NTT Communications' Vice President for Global IP Network Sales Department, Masaaki Moribayashi explained in his presentation how NTT became the number one carrier in Fortune Global 500 companies and about its global IP network which spans from the Americas to Far East. The next generation network will become a three layer architectural structure. This means that the future network will not be provided by only one carrier, but will be composed of different service providers. The Internet, one of the transport layer of this structure, is made up of many ISPs. This is a paradigm shift of voice communication network. Many service providers, such as ISPs, may enter this voice communication market by connecting with the clearinghouse. VoIP traffic is almost 40% cheaper than conventional TDM traffic, still margins are running low; in future carriers will offer 'outsourcing' and other creative solutions instead of just carrying packets. NTT Communications Clearinghouse provides a single point of contact to its customers with global coverage, low cost and high quality service and makes entrance barriers to this market lower; it takes charge of the Control Layer on the next-generation network, by maintaining control of signaling information. Its basic functions are authentication, call routing and settlement. Mashood Ahmad, General Manager, NTT Communications' Global IP Group told IT Insight that he would like to get information about IP related activity and expand into the booming market of Pakistan.
Hatim Zougari, Regional Sales Director of CIRPACK, a Thomson business unit, told IT Insight that CIRPACK is the developer of next generation Class-5 voice switches for massive deployments of broadband telephony and IP Centrex as well as for migration of legacy PSTN infrastructures to IMS/TISPAN architectures. CIRPACK deployed the largest SoftSwitch-based PSTN as early as 1998 and is now at the heart of some of Europe's largest VoIP networks. STROM telecom, a developer and producer of telecommunications equipment, information systems and technologies took part as an exhibitor and sponsor. Karen Melik-Shakhnazarov, STROM telecom's Regional Sales Director for the MEA region, gave a speech to the conference participants. TeliaSonera International Carrier, a wholesale communications provider with global network reach and local expertise delivers innovative high-quality solutions that offer simplicity and excellent value to mobile operators, carriers and service providers also participated in the Fouad Dandan, General Manager of Xplorium/Comium Group from Lebanon, told IT Insight about their widened scope of activities with established operations in GSM, International traffic, Internet and Data Operations, Contracting and Turnkey Service Engineering, as well as e-commerce, Web-design and engineering. Ziad Ziadeh, Operational Director of COMIUM mentioned that Comium Group has developed expertise covering a comprehensive range of know-how and services, namely: International Telephony, Voice Traffic, Termination, GSM, PMR and cellular systems, Telecommunication System Design and Integration, ISP Set-up, operation and services, Data services and VPN, VSAT Terminals: installation, O&M, Switching, Routing, Outside Plant: fibre, Coaxial, General Voice, Data and CCTV applications.

SPONSORS:

The distinguished list of sponsors included Etisalat, Flag Telecom, France Telecom, Siemens, TeliaSonera International Carrier, PCCW Global, NTT Communications, Lucent Technologies, Arbinet, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Net Centrex, Hewlett Packard and Strom Telecom. Nasser Bin Obood, Deputy CEO of Etisalat welcomed the attendees to a ‘networking' dinner on the first evening of the conference, while PCCW Global invited the attendees for a cocktail on the second evening. Abdullah Ali, CPA from EDCH, an arm of Etisalat, told IT Insight that Etisalat has always been in the fore front of sponsoring Telecom and ICT related events in UAE and plan to do the same in the future. It would be very exciting to see the 'makers and the shakers' of the Telecom arena from Pakistan mark their calendars and attend the Telecoms World Middle East 2006, which will be held in Dubai, UAE.

Muhammad is a BSc. (EE) & MBA from USA. Some of his certifications include MCSE, CCNA, NGDLC, ATM and NGN among others. He has worked in Telecommunications, and taught in various universities. Currently he is working as an Telecom/IT Consultant in UAE and running an online newsletter (http://www.farooq.com.pk)
He can be reached at info@farooq.com.pk