In-Building Summit Middle East 2008

The event will bring together operators, industry expert and solution providers from across the region and beyond to address current as well as future in-building coverage challenges faced by operators throughout the Middle East.


The conference programme will answer key issues surrounding the design, implementation, upgrade and optimisation of in-building solutions to achieve optimal and cost-efficent indoor coverage and capacity.

My presentation "Examining The 4G Evolution For In-Building Services And Products" takes place the 2nd day of the conference. It is expected to interact with various operators and executives mainly from Middle-East, but also global such as Motorola and ipAccess

You are all welcome to the warm Dubai:))

Is there an operator's reaction?

...thats the big question these days, when your competitor is offering the iPhone, do you see your churn to increase? Do you feel like you cannot be that competitive any more? Today the iPhone sales are beyond 9 million, which is a number that not even Google's G1 might reach. Will a new plan compete against iPhone's empire? Had an interesting conversations the other days with a senior associate from Booz Allen Hamilton and realized how complicated the future will be in telecom that will end up in a 'high connectivity ecosystem', something similar to what Google is trying to do.

Gartner claims that the operators shouldnt worry that much, since Blackberry is still very competitive, but my personal feeling is that more and more the bz warriors are carrying iPhone, cause its the 'trend', all these updates all the time. Its a never ending battle that will force people to carry both Blackberry which is superior, when it comes to heavy duty business functions and iPhone with its cool mutli-media functions. And somewhere there in-between is where the G1 grows and will serve as mover and shaker, as it is expected to steal some of the glory and make people wonder. It will end up as a debate of Apple fans vs. Google fans. Overall the Telecom today, doesnt looks like an operators' and new services battle, but rather a cell vendor's battle, extended to operators. The operator's role right now is to run after them, build the alliance and get the competitive advantage, offering the best platform and experience to the subscibers.

Hence, its a paltform-based battle, with operators-cell vendors alliances and ofcourse media companies fueling these platforms with content, adding significantly to the paltform's value and services.

The Greek Telecom paradox

Although Greece is in the bottom of the list in broadband penetration, it offers free Internet access within the airport. The speed is really good and you can easily and quickly get on any workstation that are nicely spread all over the airport main terminals. It is obvious that the tourists are surprised, but really appreciate the free service as of now. As I was coming the other days from Frankfurt's airport, I saw that the Internet service's cost was 21 euros/hour, which is definetely overpriced, but normal, since everything including the food is so expensive. Besides that Athens airport is running for the Golden Pillow Award in the European region, which is a really cool achievement, since it holds the 2nd position in the list...go and vote

..next we get an airplane in the bundle

its really funny, but a combination of marketing, technology and revenues make us dream here in Greece, about what we would like next in a bundle with the double play. I, personally, got a decent MP3 player like a PDA, now some operators give away in the bundle, laptops or multi-machines with scanner and print functionalities. And all this to promote ADSL when Verizon was promoting Fios-TV with full-HD TV, will soon come up in Greece. The good thing that all these devices are extremely useful, but the consumers on the other hand are confused, cause its really not worth to lock yourself with an service provider for 2-years just for a laptop? There should definitely be other criteria, but the providers are trying really hard in the switching battle and gaining more business.

I want, I want..hmm back to my iPhone stories, guess soon Vodafone will do the magic bundle for me..to me me happy:)

-E

Managing Editor

I decided, here in Greece, to look at things from a more critical spirit starting from the Greek Telcos and expanding globally. A new business magazine will soon be published in an every 2-months frequency for Telcos executives under my supersvision and intellectual writing style, aiming to bring some new blood and directions to the Greek Telcos! Dont forget that Greece is in the broadband EU tail in penetration together with the new members Bulgaria and Poland, which is unacceptable...The title of the magazine is "Telecom's Review" sort of conservative, my initial idea was "Telco2Go", meaning keep walking and progressing, but was too ambitious and was rejected :) Thus I am discovering and exploring my talent in Telecom Management as a journalist also, and I think its really cool. The publisher is "Boussias Communications", organizing conferences and publishing other managament magazines. The site is in Greek, sorry, but working on that..

keep you posted!
-E