Mark Hukill,
PhD.
PTC Senior Advisor

DigiWorld Summit 2007 Conference Summary:

by: Mark Hukill, PTC Senior Advisor

This year's edition of the DigiWorld Summit highlighted a broad array of topics in the mobile, broadband and media arenas under the theme of The Next Business Models: Opportunities and Disruptions. Conference topics covered a range of issues from a focus on consumer/user ICTs to a featured session on India.

Yves Gassot, Executive Director, IDATE, and a member of the PTC Advisory Council, was host once again for the 29th edition of one of Europe's most important telecom and ICT annual conferences, held 14-15 November in Montpellier, France. Ties between PTC and IDATE date back many years and there has been reciprocal participation in each other's event annually.

One of the highlights of the conference this year was a keynote address by Alcatel-Lucent CEO, Patricia Russo. She, more than anyone else, seemed to have a finger on the pulse of the major overall trends of global telecoms and ICT that also include the ever-increasing importance of social and corporate responsibility.

Russo's presentation was a welcome intervention of clarity during two days of intense discussions concerned largely with the vagaries of how to obtain the highest value of digital dollars. Russo was keen to emphasize that there is much more at hand than just digital distractions as we move from real to virtual worlds with virtual identities, social networks and transactions. Certainly the payment systems, especially micro-transactions will become increasingly important for network operators. Indeed billing/payment systems may soon become the primary service and source of revenue along with assuring content trust and security. Beyond this however, Ms. Russo also claims that there is a great need for industry leaders to put practical application to their social responsibility rhetoric. In this regard, Alcatel-Lucent is placing its emphasis on the delivery of broadband networks and services to under-served and underdeveloped regions. In the end however, it is the massive development of user-controlled content in a secure and private manner and the enabling of value creation by network suppliers, providers and operators that is key.

Another highlight of the two-day event was a discussion with Paul Champsauer, Chairman ARCEP (the French electronic communications and posts regulatory authority) who provided a candid discussion of the current, highly-contested proposition for an EU regulatory body which could set rules over national regulatory organizations. Not surprisingly, the British and Germans have come out against the proposition while the French, Spanish and Italians have given it a more positive response. It may be some time, however, before the EU forms such a 'federal' agency with powers above each sovereign country (not unlike the FCC as a federal agency over the States in the US) that is agreeable to all EU members.

In the meantime, an issue that surrounds this development is also a source for friction among EU countries. Whether or not to follow a policy of functional separation or more facilities-based competition was rather hotly debated during one of the breakout seminars and contrasted with the net neutrality debate in the US. Clearly, functional separation gives a tacit nod toward incumbent, market dominating operators and the BT Openreach agreement is a prime example. Telecom Italia and TeliaSonera may soon have a form of separation imposed but it is not a given that the European Commission will pursue this as an ultimate remedy.

IDATE provides analyses and consulting services in a number of subjects including areas around which the conference was organized into executive seminars. These included:

• Broadband: Who should pay for FTTx?

• Mobile: Digital dividend and 4G radio spectrum; Redefining mobile business models

• Media: Web 2.0, IP video distribution, new ad-ventures, open vs. closed systems

• Transatlantic Telecom Forum: Net neutrality vs. separation

• Video Games: How convergence affects business models

Many European organizations have operations in the Asia-Pacific region and PTC has long established members from Europe. These global organizations are often represented in our regional membership categories through subsidiaries and representative offices.

PTC'08 features a number of high-profile speakers from European countries including Mathias Kurth, President, Federal Network Agency, Germany on the Opening Plenary panel and Claire Paponneau, Executive VP, France Telecom - Orange, recently elected to the PTC Board of Governors, on the panel of the Monday Plenary III session on the Future of Bandwidth.

In the ever-more globalized world of telecommunications and ICTs, it is with warm aloha that we welcome many European participants to PTC!