Mobile Asia Congress Heralds Broadband Revolution

The GSMA Mobile Asia Congress opens its doors today at its new home in Macau, with leading operator CEOs from throughout the Asia Pacific region set to usher in the mobile broadband revolution.

The move to The Venetian resort in Macau, driven by GSMA CEO Rob Conway and Chairman Craig Ehrlich, reflects the rapidly changing dynamics of the mobile industry in Asia, and, in particular, the importance of being closer to the influential regions of China, Korea and Japan. Asia Pacific is adding 20 million new mobile connections every month, more than four times the growth rate of any other region.

The Congress is set to highlight the opportunities and challenges associated with the introduction of high-speed mobile broadband connectivity.

This morning’s keynote session – ‘Operators for the Future’ – will discuss the issues necessary to run and continue to grow a successful mobile business in the new era of mobile and define new approaches to the mobile business. Industry leaders Wang Jianzhou (Chairman and CEO, China Mobile), Masao Nakamura (President and CEO, NTT DoCoMo) and Manoj Kohli (President and CEO, Bharti Airtel) will draw on their experience of pioneering market-changing activities as they look to help drive the operator agenda.

This afternoon’s keynote session – ‘Building a Mobile Broadband Business’ – includes representatives from all sections of the new mobile value chain, including Warner Music Group (Edgar Bronfman Jnr, Chairman and CEO), Telstra (Sol Trujillo, CEO), Softbank (Masayoshi Son, President and CEO), Ericsson (Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO) and Yahoo! (Steve Boom, SVP Mobile). Mr Bronfman’s participation follows his presentation at a Board meeting of the GSMA last Sunday.

Further keynote speakers later this week include Dr. Li Zhengmao (Vice President, China Unicom), Alexander Izosimov (CEO, VimpelCom), Arve Johansen (Deputy CEO & Head of Asia, Telenor) and Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya (CEO, Dialog Telekom).

The exhibition floor features over 160 exhibitors – more than double last year’s total – from all sectors of the new mobile value chain, including first time showfloor appearances at the Mobile Asia Congress from China Mobile, China Unicom, NEC, LG Electronics, Orange, TDIA and Yahoo!

With over 8,000 attendees already registered, the Mobile Asia Congress is the fastest growing communications event in the region.