Iraq and Algeria recorded triple digit growth in 2005. Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen, all recorded an average yearly subscription growth of 50 per cent or more. Growth is showing great promise in the Middle East, with at least a further 150 million people in the region currently living within range of a mobile network. It is conceivable that the cellular subscribers will double before the end of 2010.

Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar are all testing high-speed 3G mobile phones services after its successful introduction in Bahrain. The Middle East region is witnessing an increase in the adoption of advanced telecom services as mobile operators start pushing for new technologies and proactively put 3G on their roadmaps. The increase in the mobile penetration rate in Jordan was the highest in the Middle East last year increasing from 28 per cent or 1.6 million subscriptions at the end of 2004, to 53 per cent or three million subscriptions at the end of 2005. None of the Arab MENA countries have yet reached the level of telecom Liberalization of Jordan and Bahrain.

Leading industry analyst and forecaster BIS Shrapnel, and partner of Strategy Analytics, has launched the latest editions of its Regional Mobile Communication studies. These reports analyze the outlook for the cellular market in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific, and forecast that the Middle East will surpass the Asia-Pacific in terms of the mobile penetration rate, by the end of 2006.

Last years 18 per cent growth of the cellular subscriber base across the Asia-Pacific was driven mainly by a few markets: India, Vietnam and Indonesia. These three countries enjoyed a robust growth rate of approximately 50 per cent each in 2005. Growth in the Indian cellular market surpassed even China over the three years to 2005, growing at 140 per cent in 2003 and 70 per cent in 2004.

IIR which is the undisputable regional market leader in the conference and training sector and offers business executives knowledge and skills through training, conferences, seminars, e-Learning, blended solutions, exhibitions, consulting and mentoring, held Wireless Middle East conference which gave opportunity to discover the most recent developments in wireless and gain cutting-edge information on wireless technologies and the wireless industry in the region. It is the only organization in the region that has 140 staff of 24 different nationalities that together produce and market more than 500 conference and training programs and 10 international exhibitions annually.

Neil Pawley, Senior Technology Analyst from Advanced Technology Group, UK not only moderated the event but also introduced the attendants to the IEEE 802.xx family of WLAN, WPAN, BWA and MBWA. RFID and Wireless Broadband came under discussion. However, the show stealers were WiFi and Wimax as debates such as ''hotspots to hotzones'' and “WiFi vs. WiMax” gave the audience something to think about. VoWLAN was another hot topic and so was Wi Phising and Wi-Pharming.

Opportunities and challenges of wireless world were tackled as the event not only handled the technical but also the business side of wireless. Is wireless best for you, what would be the cost and is the whole exercise worth it - were some of the tough questions discussed through the prism of case studies. Wireless Networks at Universities, Airports, Hospitals and Off-shore oil rigs were discussed. Time and flat rate charges, Trends, standards, hardware, software, designing, convergence and broadband were some of the topics discussed as they apply to the wireless domain.

Mahmood Ahmed Al Bastaki, Chief Information Officer, Shared Services Ports, Customs & Freezone Corporation, UAE moderated the major forum entitled ''cutting the chord'' where most panelists agreed that wireless compliments wire-line and does not necessarily compete with it. The WiMAX Forum™ an industry-led, non-profit corporation formed to promote and certify the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products using the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HiperMAN wireless MAN specifications offered its patronage to the event.

Motorola which is a Fortune 100 global communications leader providing seamless mobility products and solutions across broadband, embedded systems and wireless networks was one of the major sponsors of the conference. Generally when we think of wireless microwave towers, transmitters and repeaters come to mind but wireless has a software side to it as well, and mesh dynamics a privately held young startup offers exactly this. The company's Structured Mesh™ architecture enables a unique multi-radio, multi-channel backhaul path with vastly superior bandwidth (>50x) and latency over multiple hops, providing the best price/performance solution for dense city-wide VoIP and mobile data, as well as Public Safety networks. Both were joined by intel which after the success of its Centrino chip is planning to add WiMax chips to most laptops by 2007.

Some of the distinguished speakers included Noel Kirkaldy, Wireless Broadband Director Motorola Networks MEA, Dr. Jens N. Albers, CEO Nanotron Technologies, Germany, Abdullah A. Al-Asmari, Wireless Data Network Engineering Group Supervisor Saudi Aramco, KSA, Houssam Salha, Vice President of Sales and Marketing PicoPoint Middle East, Lebanon, Firas A H Al-Abduwani, Regional Representative MeshDynamics, Oman, Michel Naggar, Business Development Director MEA Alcatel, France, Marie-Paule Odini, IMS SDP Solution Manager Hewlett Packard, France and Jorge Sebastiao, Founder and CEO E Security Gulf Group, Bahrain. Over the entire event was a great success, since it covered a diverse range of topics as they apply to wireless and gathered a number of players technical as well as non-technical.