Beyond Connectivity 2014

Four Pillars for Telecom Sector to Foster Economic Growth & Sustainable Development

Taxes Optimization – Smart Governance – Spectrum Harmonization & Pricing - Revenue Streams Diversification

Over the past few years, the emergence of next generation technologies has resulted in more objects gaining the ability to communicate. The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks. Growth in the telecoms & ICT sector is especially corroborated in the SAMENA region showing a strong demand for convergence that will ultimately result in fostering economic growth.

Trends in technologies, policy & regulation, and end user’s experiences now require that the telecom players radically adapt and recalibrate their strategies, service offerings and approaches to end user requirements both in the consumer and business segments. With the evolving landscape of the telecoms & ICT industry, operators need to adjust to the new reality of cloud based services, social media, mobility, Big Data and M2M among others, that are all being prompted by a flexible mix of services and multiple devices. The evolution of the telecoms & ICT landscape is, therefore, inextricably intertwined with economic growth and other aspects of our life. And, as everything goes digital and the use of applications and content is interchangeable across different devices, industry players have to look to new business models and ways to find their position in the evolving industry landscape.

In an extremely competitive industry it's important to take the lead and collaborate to allow the industry to transcend innovation to the next evolutionary pedestal. It is crucial to widen the horizons to look at the collective picture to ensure that all spheres of the industry are analyzed, explored and tapped to identify a road map for progression. Beyond Connectivity will be held on March 16th & 17th in Kuwait and will vindicate the SAMENA Council's contemplation to the evolving landscape of telecoms and ICT sector by the emergence of next generation technologies. It will implicate the economic implications of light touch regulatory interventions that maintain an open fair competitive market, lead to new revenue streams and incentive investments for the telecom operators as well as technology providers.

Beyond Connectivity will discuss the topics which include but are not limited to the following:

• Taxes reduction policies imposed on telecom operators: Impact on the overall nation economy development
• Infrastructure sharing: A mean for efficient CAPEX reallocation
• Pricing and fair competition:  Nature of regulatory intervention
• International roaming regulations: The need to reassess wholesale pricing and termination rates
• Telecom licensing framework: Can unified licensing regime lead to a healthy competitive market?
• Diversification of Revenue Streams: Potential opportunities with OTTs
• Strategies to overcome spectrum challenges (allocation - pricing)
• Regional perspective of Net Neutrality: the impact on operators’ business