Dubai hosts 9th annual GSM in Middle East, Gulf and North Africa conference
Al-Bawaba
October 4, 2004 Monday
By Mena Report Reporters
The ninth annual GSM in the Middle East, Gulf and North Africa
conference and exhibition is due to take place 5-6 October 2004, at
the JW Marriott Hotel, Dubai, UAE.
Held under the patronage of the Minister of Communications for the
United Arab Emirates, GSM in the Middle East, Gulf and North Africa is
the established annual meeting place for the GSM community in the
region. This year the event will incorporate the North Africa region,
an initiative backed by a marketing campaign to Algeria, Chad, Egypt,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.
Organized by IBC Global Conferences, the event will showcase the
latest in GSM technology, solutions and services. It will provide a
platform for the region’s mobile industry to learn from key industry
speakers on the critical business, strategy and technical issues
facing the region as well as providing market case studies of the
leading services, applications and products.
“GSM in the Middle East, Gulf and North Africa conference and
exhibition is a unique event, focused purely on the GSM market,
technology and services,” said Fiona Loud, marketing manager, IBC
Global Conferences. “The event aims to provide a platform where GSM
operators, network vendors and software developers can meet and
exchange experiences in order to better serve the customer in the
region and enrich the lifestyle of the people,” she added.
“Mobile subscribers in the Middle East and North Africa grew to 38.8
million at the end of 2003, an increase of 40.1% on 2002. This figure
is forecast to rise to 51.9 million by the end of 2004, fuelled in
particular by rapid subscriber growth in the North African markets of
Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria,” said John Everington, Senior Analyst at
EMC World Cellular Database, a company internationally reputed as the
best source for operational data and analysis on the mobile industry.
Opportunities for 3G in the region, regulation and liberalisation
developments, customer retention and acquisition strategies, effective
pricing strategies in a competitive market, billing for increased
revenue and customer relationship management (CRM), together with
developing GPRS for the corporate market, will be among the conference
topics.
Endorsed by the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation – Etisalat and
sponsored by the world’s leading GSM technology providers, including
Huawei Technologies, Ericsson, Siemens mobile, Convergys, LogicaCMG,
Metrica, Gemplus, Giesecke & Devrient and Atos Origin, the GSM in the
Middle East, Gulf and North Africa exhibition will demonstrate the
latest in GSM technology, services and solutions.
According to EMC World Cellular Database analysts, the Middle East is
one of the few regions in the world where the mobile
telecommunications industry is still expanding and experiencing strong
growth.
IBC’s GSM in the Middle East and Gulf 2003 set an attendance record
last October in Dubai with an increase of 43% on the previous year,
reflecting the new developments and challenges facing the GSM
community in this region. The audience of over 500 included over 160
mobile operators and delegates from more than 31 countries including
UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Libya,
Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Armenia, UK,
France, Belgium, Sweden and Germany. (menareport.com)