Welcome to Beyond Connectivity 2011

This year, the Beyond Connectivity annual conference theme is “Building towards a digital future”. The inevitable evolution of telecommunications industry in the SAMENA region has lead to a vital increase in convergence and hence been extremely beneficial with respect to the burgeoning of the innovative strategies in the evolving telecommunication landscape.

Due to the higher spectrum efficiency of “digital technology”, the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting will free some spectrum. The released spectrum is called “Digital dividend” and is considered to introduce increasingly important amount of spectrum. The spectrum being made available as digital dividend is of great value for telecom sector because this can be used to efficiently provide wireless broadband service, predominantly in rural areas. By and large, the telecoms landscape in SAMENA region substantiate that digital technology provides one of the few opportunities for telcos to obtain additional spectrum to tape into the market more effectively. Digital technology utilizes the spectrum more efficiently as compared to analogue, thus after switchover there will be more spectrum available for new services such as wireless broadband and High Definition Television (HDTV). The ITU goal for the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting has been set at mid 2015. Growth in the mobile sector is especially corroborated in the Middle East showing a strong demand for convergence and introducing challenges that the operators community must address in the shape of novel strategies and more attractive business models to accomplish comprehensive triumph in this demanding region. Today, in the world of telecommunications, the struggle for survival is adhered to, the time to market, regulatory landscape, spectrum availability, business models, the market potential and above all optimized OPEX as well as CAPEX.

This year “Beyond Connectivity” will be held on April 25th - 27th in Abu Dhabi and will highlight industry's shift towards digital future. The event will discuss some of the predominantly significant issues of spectrum strategies, digital dividend, digital content, and net neutrality among others.

Discussion Topics

• Content
• Threat of the OTTP
• Monetization of the Content
• Stimulating the Digital Content Ecosystem
• OTTP Opportunities & Challenges
• Arab Internet users content consumption patterns
• Digital Content Ecosystem

• Evolution of the technology and Next Generation Networks

• Digitization of the Economy

• The Digital Dividend: Socio-Economic benefits via Spectrum Reshaping

• Mergers & Acquisitions: Rise for Technologies or Global Competition ?

• Mobile Content Innovation

• Innovation in the Home

• Satellite Broadband

Fore more details, Download Agenda here.

Speakers