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April 2007 |
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PTC Advisory Council: Building Value
for the Community
by: Ed Simnett,
Chair, PTC Advisory Council; Product Strategist, Windows
Live Mobile Search, Microsoft, USA
What is the Advisory Council (AC)?
The Advisory Council for PTC exists to help or guide the
Board of Governors (BG). Guide them in what way, you
might ask, and the answer is simple -- in the interests of
the members. By being a larger group than the BG and
elected and selected to ensure that we have representation
across types of organizations and geography, every effort
is made to make sure PTC is delivering what its members want.
What’s new for 2007?
First of all I should note that the AC is not a new body
(it was established in 2003). We are continuing the work
lead by former chair Jay Gillette and vice-chair Gregg Daffner
over the previous two years. Speaking personally I know that
their work has been important in making the transition a
good one, and best of luck to Gregg in his work as he has
moved on to the Board of Governors. I am happy to say
that Jay remains a valued member of the AC.
The biggest organizational change for 2007 has been the
move from a single vice chair to four vice-chairs. We are
going to use this broadening of the leadership to focus the
vice-chairs on specific areas, each with the specific goal
of advancing PTC and our members’ interests over the
next two years. Those vice-chairs are Heather Hudson (University
of San Francisco), Shuji Kusuda (J Wave, and also head of
the PTC Japan Chapter), Hunter Newby (Telx), and Gene Spinelli
(Verizon Business, Asia Pacific).
more...
PTC 2007 Mid-Year Seminar: 12-14 September,
Papeete, Tahiti
Reserve these dates now to attend the 2007 PTC Mid-Year
Seminar in Tahiti.
The hotel venue is being finalized as of this writing and
a separate announcement will be sent shortly to all members.
A program steering committee is already at work including
Board of Governors members Bruce Drake and Robert Walp, Advisory
Council member and seminar host Maui Sanford and PTC members
Joe Mertz and Lou Zacharilla.
Topics will include broadband access and barriers to access,
affordability and financing, intelligent communities, services
to rural areas and development issues, appropriate wireless
technologies, disaster management and regulatory/policy issues. Many
thanks to OPT French Polynesia, the seminar host and lead
sponsor of this significant event.
The event will be targeting those with interests in the
development of the Pacific Island nations including suppliers
and providers (satellite, undersea cable, and ground-based
including wireless) as well as development agencies and industry
organizations including the Pacific Islands Telecommunications
Association (PITA). The seminar hopes to highlight
government balance with the private sector, affordability,
practical costs and models for financial structures. We
also look forward to learn from the broader PTC community
across North America and Asia with cases in similar development
related arenas that could serve as examples to build from
in the Pacific Islands.
More program details, venue information, registration details
and additional activities for the Mid-year seminar will be
sent to everyone soon. You may also contact Odessa
Kawai odessa@ptc.org for
more on how you can participate.
PTC'08: 30th Anniversary Conference
and Exhibition
13-16 January 2008
Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
A Steering Committee has been formed to guide the overall
development of PTC'08 including Board of Governors members
David Lassner, Ken Zita, Yoshikazu Kobayashi, and John
Hibbard, as well as Advisory Council members Ed Simnett,
Robert Mao and Alex Salkever.
A conference committee will also be formed with members
who are able to make specific contributions to the conference
program.
The Secretariat is represented by Sharon Nakama, Claudine
Naruse and Mark Hukill for project management of the conference
and for support of both the steering and conference committees.
Headliners and keynote speakers as well as major topics
for the conference are now being considered and members are
invited to contribute ideas. We will be contacting
a number of members for specific help on various tasks, to
volunteer support and serve as part of the conference committee
and in particular for proposal review.
A call for participation for PTC'08 will be issued near
the end of April and will include requests for presentations,
managed sessions, keynote speakers, workshops, tutorials, "Birds
of a Feather", sponsored sessions, partner seminars & summits,
as well as emerging application and technology demonstrations.
Executive Director Position
The Board of Governors has continued with the process through
the month of March and into April for hiring an Executive
Director. Applications for the position are being reviewed
and the Board is expected to come to a decision soon. A separate
message will be sent directly to all members, as well as
a press release for public distribution, as soon as an announcement
can be made.
Website Re-Design and Exhibits Management
RFPs
PTC recently distributed two RFPs: One for a website
re-design and the other for the outsourcing of exhibits
management and operations for PTC'08. Both RFPs
had deadlines of 30 March and complete proposals received
are currently being reviewed.
Many thanks for input on the website re-design RFP from
Advisory Council Chair Ed Simnett and Vice-Chair Hunter Newby
as well as several other members. Budget permitting,
we are looking forward to incorporating a number of useful
member interactive features and networking tools as well
as improved on-line processes for registration and intuitive
design for information and member directory navigation among
other changes .
PTC would be pleased to have a sponsor for the website re-design
project and can feature the sponsoring organization(s) on
the site on a continuing basis. If you are interested
in this high profile opportunity, please contact Sharon
Nakama
The exhibition outsource RFP is intended to further develop
and grow the exhibition and related activities at the annual
conference through a partner organization in a better position
for such development beyond the current capacity of the secretariat.
Focus on Issues
The Impact of Reliable Communications Technology
[Editor’s Note: Of special interest to many
PTC members is the arena of submarine cable telecommunications.
The SubOptic 2007 conference,
14-17 May, InnerHarbor-Baltimore, Maryland, USA, will be
attended by a number of PTC members. PTC was pleased
to have a SubOptic program organizer, Tyco Telecommunications,
as a Platinum Sponsor and SubOptic as a Bronze Sponsor at
PTC’07.]
Business leaders around the globe recognize the need for
stable, reliable communications systems – systems that
will not be damaged or destroyed during periods of severe,
unpredictable weather or catastrophic incidents.
This is especially true for the offshore oil and gas industry,
which sustained significant blows during the 2005 hurricane
season in the southern United States. According to the National
Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), the impact of the 2005
storms on the outer continental shelf was severe; destroying
113 offshore platforms, seriously damaging 52 more and shutting-in
over 95% of offshore Gulf crude oil production, or roughly
27% of total U.S. crude oil production.
Another notable communications loss occurred in December
2006 when southern Taiwan was rocked by an earthquake. The
event knocked out eight cables serving as the primary telecommunications
conduits for Asia. Telephone and internet networks in Taiwan,
China, South Korea, Japan and India crashed.
In efforts to prepare for the unknown, communications providers
are looking to identify a reliable communications technology
that can protect their systems from the dooming cost of uncertainty.
more...
Eye on Trends: China
and India
by: Mark Hukill, Senior Advisor, PTC and Member, PTC Advisory
Council.
Some interesting statistics have emerged from Asia recently. The
first is the milestone reached in China at the start of 2007
with the report that
China Mobile, Ltd. now has over 306 million mobile phone
subscribers. That is more subscribers than the entire population
of the United States, but still represents only a quarter
of the population of China.
Secondly, India Telecom, one of the largest telecom companies
in the world, released a report in
February stating that nearly 7 million new wireless and mobile
subscribers were added during January 2007. Wireless
subscribers now total over 156 million. While a very
large number, this is still only about 15% of the population
of India.
With just over 1 billion cell phones shipped to consumers
in 2006, according to a study conducted by the International
Data Corp., nearly half are going to China and India alone. These
two countries are on pace to eventually have more mobile
phone subscribers than the rest of the world combined. And
the use of those mobile phones includes an increasing use
of text messaging, not voice calls, as is the case across
all of Asia. The increasing use of video also looms
large in the next wave of applications.
more...
PITA AGM and Tradeshow, 23-27 April
2007, Papeete, Tahiti
Prior to the PTC Mid-year seminar in Tahiti in September,
The Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association, PITA,
will be holding their 11th Annual
General Meeting (AGM) and Tradeshow in Papeete, Tahiti,
this month. PTC Advisory Council member Maui Sanford,
President of PITA, invites all interested parties to take
part in the PITA AGM which is slated to include over 100
senior level executives from around the Pacific island nations
(carriers, operators and regulators) as well as suppliers
from developed nations. Topics for discussion at the
meeting include:
- Opportunities for consolidated satellite segments;
- Disaster and emergency communications systems for the
Pacific;
- Access developments to small islands, rural areas;
- Next generation telecoms;
- Satellite C-band future and impacts;
- Training and capacity development;
- Regulatory and policy development.
The venue for the PITA AGM and Tradeshow is the Sheraton
Hotel Tahiti, Faa’a, Papeete, French Polynesia. For
more information, contact pita@connect.com.fj
Members' Hotbox
The Intelligent Community Forum, ICF,
will hold its Building
the Broadband Economy 2007 event 17-18 May at the Polytechnic
University in Brooklyn, New York. PTC members receive
a 10% registration discount by using promotional code ' ptc7065'.
The Trans-Pacific Express (TPE), a new China-U.S. undersea
optical cable system to be constructed by Verizon Business
and five Asian carriers, will see China become Asia's
second communications hub, officials from Verizon Business
said during an interview with Interfax. The
six partners include PTC active organizations Verizon Business,
China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom
and Korea Telecom (KT). Each are reported to be investing
equal shares in the $500 million project.
Australia carrier and service operator Telstra has announced that
it will build an undersea fibre-optic cable between Australia
and Hawaii to be completed by mid-2008.
REDCOM has announced the
introduction of the SLICE(TM) 2100: An
advanced VoIP Call Manager with Secure Voice and IP-TDM Interoperability.
The SLICE(TM) 2100 delivers
a comprehensive IP migration solution through its integrated
SIP Call Controller, Media Gateway, and Media Gateway Controller.
It also provides seamless VoIP and TDM interoperability.
Industry Events
Look for
exclusive member discounts
MEMBERS ONLY: Log in here to
view full descriptions of industry events and publications
including exclusive member discount codes.
NAB
2007
14-19 April 2007; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Intele-CardExpo
24-26 April 2007; Miami, Florida, USA
SubOptic
2007
14-17 May 2007; Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Building
the Broadband Economy 2007
17-18 May 2007, New York City, New York, USA
Members of PTC receive a 10% discount on registration by
using promotional code 'ptc7065.'
VoIP
and Wireless VoIP: The Future is Calling
4-5 June 2007; Singapore
PTC Members kindly quote EN-discount:PTC to receive a
10% discount
ISCe
2007
5-7 June 2007; San Diego, California, USA
PTC members receive a discount on conference
registration fee.
Broadband
World Forum Asia 2007
5–8 June 2007; Beijing, China
Register today to attend Broadband World Forum Asia 2007
and save an additional 30% off the tuition fee courtesy of PTC.
Broadband
Policy Summit III: Broadband Full Steam Ahead
7-8 June 2007; Arlington, Virginia, USA
PTC members receive a $100 discount
WCA
2007
12-15 June 2007; Washington, District of Columbia, USA
PTC members will be eligible for WCA early-bird member
rates at any time of registration (a discount which will be 15-30% depending
on the time of registration)
NXTcomm
2007
18-21 June 2007; Chicago, Illinois, USA
Enter the VIP pass code PTC7 while registering online and
receive complimentary access to the educational keynote sessions as well as
access to the exhibit floor. ($150USD value)
CommunicAsia
2007
19-22 June 2007; Singapore
VoIP
Asia Congress 2007
16-19 July 2007; Singapore
Members of PTC receive a 15% discount on registration
by using code 'CG2391PTC.'
Black
Hat Briefings & Training USA 2007
28 July – 2 Aug 2007; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
PTC members receive a $100 Briefings
discount by inserting BH06USAASSOC into
the box marked “Coupon Codes” on the web registration
page, with the discounted price shown on the final invoice.
OSP
EXPO 2007
28-30 August 2007; San Jose, California, USA
Registration for PTC members will be free until May 1, 2007
Click
here for complete list of industry events
Industry Publications
Look for exclusive member
discounts
MEMBERS ONLY: Log in here to
view full descriptions of industry events and publications
including exclusive member discount codes.
Connect-World
50% discount on the subscription fee
for both printed and online magazines
Interfax
China
PTC Members receive a 15% on all annual subscriptions
to Interfax China IT & Telecom Report and are entitled to a
complimentary trial subscription
Philippine
IT-Enabled Services Industry Perspective (ITES)
10% discount on purchase price of publication
Why
is the Philippines a cost-effective outsourcing location (pdf,
64kb)
The
TelecomDirectory.com
One (1) month of FREE SEO Services
and three (3) FREE months listing on TheTelecomDirectory
www.SubCableNews.com
Save €180 on a 14-month subscription
Asia
Telecommunications Insight
15 months subscription for the
price of 12 plus online access at no extra charge
Questex
Media Group
20% special discount offer
to PTC members
The
APT Yearbook
PTC members receive a 20% discount off
the purchase price
Contacting Us
PTC’s online and email bulletin to members
is distributed once a month. You should receive your next
copy on, or soon after, 7 May 2007.
For more information on PTC, visit our website
at www.ptc.org.
Please send your questions or suggestions to Odessa Kawai
at odessa@ptc.org.
If you or your company representatives wish to continue
informing other PTC members of new or improved
products, or of individual achievements via the Members’ Bulletin,
please express your wishes to Odessa Kawai at odessa@ptc.org
Please note that for news and headlines, we will only publish
items that include a link to the cited article. This service
is for PTC members only.
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