January 21, 2008 · 11:27 AM

Markets Of Mobility

Mobile telecommunications are one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. More and more bits and bytes floating round the world enable mobile surfing and mobile television. With the growth of the sector, the number of the competitors is growing rapidly. The market for mobile communications becomes more and more international, and the importance of international regulation rises.

Discussing about new technologies and opportunities on mobile markets are:

Viviane Reding, EU-commissioner for information, society and media
René Obermann, CEO Deutsche Telekom AG
Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President, Entertainment and Communities, Nokia
Marcus Englert, member of the executive board, ProSiebenSat1
Paul-Bernhard Kallen, member of the board of directors, Hubert Burda Media

René Obermann, Telekom CEO, starts by talking about mobile communications. He remembers his pioneership in the internet based-service world seventeen years ago. Today, he sees himself facing many other pioneers at DLD with experience in broadband and wireless communications.

Some trends: People will soon be able to communicate everywhere. People will continue to digitize their life. The content in communications becomes more and more valuable. Today, people already spend more money on MP3 tracks than on an IPod. The internet turns mobile. It's not reality yet, but there are no technical reasons why people shouldn't chat and surf everywhere they want.

Obermann points out that mobile communications are not only available in the Western world, but they also open up possibilities for the people in Ruanda, for example. His conclusion: The growth of the communication markets hasn't come to an end yet. "We'll keep on working for new innovations."

Commissioner Reding emphasizes the importance of access for everybody. "We need more broadband", she demands.

She's right, might someone in the HVB Forum think, cause the W-LAN we bloggers rely on has just slowed down.

Outside the building - where the density of mobile surfers is lower -, Europe is one of the top players in mobile communications. The Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden - can claim stronger infrastructure for mobile communications Korea or Japan in their own respective countries.

However, the EU hasn't done all its homework yet. "My policy is to get the white spots wiped off", Reding says."The future world will be a wireless world."

To be a top player, Europe needs adequate regulation. Reding states that she does not want to have 27 different border building regulation frames in the Union. She is working towards one consistent wireless europe.

Obermann and Ojanperä both point out that competition between providers in the EU is essential, but they both agree that big investments into infrastructure should have the chance to be amortizised.

Kallen asks that the panel should not only discuss infrastructure, but also playgrounds for creative talents to produce more content.

Reding: "We need a win-win situation for both, technology and content providers, which we don't have at the moment."

 

0 comments· Permalink· Trackback-URL

Tags: dld08·solon