Leading the way for a digitally connected future

 Speaking about the event, Etisalat’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Khalifa Al Shamsi, observed, “Etisalat envisions that all UAE residents will soon be digitally connected, improving themselves and their lifestyles every single day. Through a mix of advanced broadband technologies, Etisalat has already embarked upon this process and its recent nation-wide fiber roll-out, e-Life, will add significant value to customers’ lifestyles, enabling them to achieve much more than what is possible today. Through our participation in this summit, we are pleased to bring to a wider forum our experiences and insights that will assist in laying out the future roadmap of broadband infrastructure development for the entire region.”
In a keynote presentation on the ‘LTE Focus’ day of the event, Tariq Al Qaseer, Senior Director of Mobile Network- Planning at Etisalat, highlighted the “mobile broadband trends and challenges” elaborating on the opportunities brought by the advanced Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and joint efforts required to accelerate the LTE maturity in the region. He also explained Etisalat’s efforts in this direction through an earlier demonstration of LTE, designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile networks.
As a key note speaker on the opening day, Ali Al Ahmed, Group Chief Strategy Officer, (GCSO) at Etisalat, mapped the evolution in the communications industry over the past one decade. In this congregation of the region’s top minds: regulatory decision makers, industry leaders and innovators, he discussed the opportunities and challenges faced in addressing the increasing customer demand and the strategic deployment of several technologies that exist within diverse environments. This was followed by a panel discussion on the region’s future broadband road-map and technology vision.
On the concluding day of the third-day event, highlighting on the FTTH technological advancements and strategies, Fahem Al Bugham, Vice President for Technology Strategy, presented a case study on the “Impact of evolving GPON on Access Network” and customer advantages met by the FTTH network, drawing on Etisalat’s experience as a pioneer in deploying the region’s first fibre network across the UAE.
Etisalat’s contribution to the event was showcased through Etisalat’s experiences in the recent deployment of the Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and HSPA+ in the UAE, as well as through strategic insight from Etisalat experts on the future of broadband technologies. Etisalat’s FTTH network has already covered over 735,000 households in the UAE through eLife, and plans are in place to connect the whole of the nation’s households by 2011, setting UAE in the league of top international fibre-connected countries.
Etisalat is also the first in the region to introduce the fastest mobile broadband technology, HSPA+ in the UAE, including the design and installation of the HSPA+ mobile infrastructure in the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.
The event, among other benefits, also explored the broadband business in detail and presented opportunities to craft business strategies in order to deliver a new level of experience for customers and greater returns for shareholders. The programme included multiple tracks across two days with over 60 high-level speakers, including 20 presentations, 38 operator case studies, workshops, training programmes and much more.