Rural Broadband Summit

The BRAND NEW Rural Broadband Summit provides delegates with the chance to explore opportunities and innovations with delivering broadband connectivity to rural areas.
With some of the region’s top representatives in attendance, this summit is an unmissable part of the event!

08:30 Registration and Coffee

08:50 Speed Networking

09:00 Opening Remarks from the Chair

Richard Jones, Partner, Ventura Team LLP

09:10 Case Study: How to Enrich Different Customers with Nationwide

Broadband Services Through Wimax Pipes

• Introduction to Iran broadband Market
• Who is MobinNet
• MobinNet experience of Deploying WiMAX and network expansion strategy
• MobinNet experience of Providing different broadband services to different segments
• Challenges and the ways to overcome them

Nima PourNejatian, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), MobinNet Telecom Co. (MTC), Iran

09:40 Towards an Efficient ICT Sector Policy (e-governance, e-commerce, ehealth,

e-education) to Serve Remote Areas.

• Government’s role in achieving broadband connectivity for remote areas (policies, funds, taxes, etc.)
• Regulator’s role: licensing obligations to cover rural areas, network sharing, competition, etc.
• Technology innovations utilized in fast rural broadband deployment (Mobile broadband,Cloud services as a development enabler for SMEs, etc.)
• Development of local content and applications and promotion of capacity building of ICT users

Dr. Imad Hoballah, Acting Chairman and CEO and Head of Telecommunications Technologies Unit, TRA Lebanon

10:10 The State of broadband in Africa

• Major trends in broadband market in Africa
• Trends in rural markets
• Connectivity bottlenecks
• Survey results, State of Broadband in Africa 2010
• Informa’s forecasts

Thecla Mbongue, Senior Research Analyst, Informa Telecoms and Media

10:40 Networking Coffee Break

11:20 Case study Andorra – Why it is imperative to invest in a future proof network

• Analysis of Andorra Telecom’s FTTH network – the first country to offer 100% coverage
• Long-term economic impact of investing in universal broadband
• How Andorra has benefitted from ubiquitous access
• Increasing penetration – strategies to encourage uptake

Jaume Salvat, CEO, Andorra Telecom, Andorra

11:50 Unleash the Potential of Your Copper Network for Rural Broadband

• Defining the problem
• The market potential
• Challenges faced
• Solutions that cost effectively meets demand

John Larkin, Director of Marketing, The Kenton Group, UK

12:20 Case Study: Delivering Broadband in Azerbaijan

• The Wimax experiense
• Who should fund the networks that aren’t commercially rentable?
• Challenges faced
• Lessons learnt
• Future of migration to either LTE or WiMax2

Jayhun Mollazade, CEO, Azqtel, Azerbaijan

12:50 Networking Lunch

13.50 Empowering Rural African Citizens with ICT for Development using SPARC

• Information poverty is a widespread social problem throughout developing countries
• SPARC (Solar Powered Advanced Rural Communications) overcomes the basic challenges of electricity and communication to bridge the divide
• Creating weatlh for previously disadvantaged communities in Sub Saharan Africa, through human capital development by maximising access to information and communications technologies

Kai-Uwe Wulff, Chief Evangelist, Plexus Group and former Chief Strategy Officer, Nashua Group, South Africa

14:20 Rural Network Sharing – Making it Happen

• The rural network opportunity
• Commercial models for rural network sharing
• Rural network sharing case studies
• Making rural network sharing happen

Charles Murray, Senior Manager, Analysys Mason

14:50 Panel Discussion: Debating the Technology Choices for Rural Broadband

• Should the network be technologically neutral?
• LTE, WiMAX and HSPA: The merits of each for rural broadband
• How can different technologies help bridge the digital divide?

Mohammed Osman Alserier, Fixed Wireless Development Chief Engineer II, Data,Solutions Planning & Design, Mobily, Saudi Arabia

Farshad Amin, Technical Advisor, MCI, Iran

Richard Jones, Partner, Ventura Team LLP

15:20 Networking Coffee Break

15:50 FTTH rollout in Rural areas: Make it possible

• Worldwide FTTx picture
• Remarkable study cases of fibre rollout in rural areas
• Advantages and disadvantages of rural areas regarding FTTH
• Building your business model for FTTH in Rural Areas
• IDATE worldwide FTTH forecasts

Roland Montagne, Director Telecoms Business Unit, IDATE

16:20 Delivering Broadband in Rural Areas in Pakistan

• Key challenges faced in rural area
• Opportunity Vs strategic decision
• Segmentation & Pricing
• Increasing ARPU by Up-sell & cross-Sell

Usman Ali Akbar, Senior Project Manager – Group Synergy,Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd

16:50 Broadband Infrastructure Enablement of Smart Cities

• The role of the network as a platform to transform cities into digital communities
• Designing cities centered on information architecture to create connected, intelligent and green infrastructure
• Operating multi-purpose broadband infrastructure to integrate new services and enable smart delivery of public services

Labib Matta, Senior Partner, Next Gen Advisory Group

17:20 Examining the Role of Local Content in Tapping into the Potential in the Rural Broadband Market

• Making relevant content available in the rural areas of the Middle East and Africa
• How can content providers deliver content to users with basic devices which have limited capabilities to read content?
• ‘The Tablet Form Factor’ – How will a different wave of internet users drive new technology designs?
• Overcoming literacy and education challenges among users

Ntokozo Khumalo, African Business Producer, ETV

17:30 End Day 1

To register for the Rural Broadband Summit click here