Dionisia Tabureguci
No doubt this year’s Pacific Telecommunication Conference in Hawaii (PTC 08)—kicks off this month on the 13th—is going to be a gathering of telecom titans, whether individuals or corporations from big and small countries in the Asia Pacific region, not to mention an elabour ate showcase of emerging technologies and an oasis of new ideas and an opportunity for establishing new contacts and networks.

PTC 08, in keeping with traditions of the conference’s 30-year old history, will be graced with the presence of the heavyweights in the world’s telecom industry and even as we say that, it is getting harder to limit the definition of “telecom industry” to just those who provide communication services for these are days where “convergence” is the key word and ICT is an all embracing concept with bandwidth being the enabling resource.

For the Pacific Islands Telecommunication Association (PITA), which incidentally was founded at a previous PTC, this will be the opportunity to plan for the year ahead, said manager Fred Christopher.

“It’s really going to be what we do every year at this time,” said Christopher. “This is usually when we take stock of what happened during the year and plan for the new year. We do this just before PTC and PTC is an opportunity for our members to get a wider view of the industry, an opportunity for networking and making contacts,” he added.

PITA members include telecom companies and countries from the South Pacific region and it has the support of various governments, organisations and multinational telecom suppliers with interests in the Pacific region.

Christopher said PITA would meet a day before PTC 08 begins and discuss training needs, as well as come up with a work plan for 2008.

Regarded by its organisers as Asia-Pacific’s “Number One international conference for telecommunications and ICT professionals”, the annual PTC conference is heavily characterised by the presence, participation and support of big names in the industry.

“PTC’s great challenge, similar to what most of you face, is ensuring that we embrace the changes around us,” said PTC president David Lassner in his welcome message to participants. “[These are] Changes in technology, changes in the marketplace, changes in the regulatory environment, changes in the financial structures, and most of all, changes in the ways information and communication technologies (ICTs) are improving the human condition in our region. More than anything else, PTC offers all of us the opportunity to understand and appreciate the magnitude of change in our sector. We do this through a sterling array of sessions and speakers that tap into the nexus of key changes as well as through the richest opportunities for networking anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region,” Lassner said.

For PITA members, their annual attendance of PTC is of significant value to its business. “FINTEL has been involved with PTC since the mid-70s and more prominently from the 90s as a member of the organisation and in particular, the international carrier for Fiji,” said Sakaraia Tuilakepa, CEO of FINTEL (Fiji International Telecommunication Ltd).

“Hence, the necessity to deal with all bilateral partners at a single place for all of FINTEL’s business relations. It is also an opportunity to embrace the ever so evolving and converging nature of the industry and that executives get a first hand updating and appreciation of the ICT drivers on exhibition,” he added.

FINTEL’s biggest challenge, it said, is competition being the new order for Fiji’s telecom market. As such it makes it all the more important to derive benefits from PTC that would help FINTEL develop new strategies in the economics, financial, technical and legal areas of its business model.

“It’s a one-stop shop for all your industry and business issues and FINTEL will always try and extract maximum credit out of this event,” said Tuilakepa.

New market player Digicel Pacific took part for the first time last year and found it helpful.

“We found the dialogue and debate most informative as many of the Pacific markets move towards liberalisation. We look forward to taking part again in 2008,” said Digicel Pacific marketing director Niamh Byrne.

The Pacific region is still struggling with deregulation issues and is therefore yet to provide its markets with consumer products that technological advances are already delivering to markets in Asia and the developed world.

Ken Zita, PTC ‘08 Programme Chairman, gave a snapshot of what they will be enjoying in his message to participants: “We have assembled some of the smartest people in the industry to address one of the signature events of the day: the sudden surge of video applications and traffic on all dimensions of the value chain. “Video has become a new defining moment for the telecom industry. Skyrocketing demand for bandwidth is fuelled by widespread adoption of resident broadband and 3G mobile networks, ubiquitous multimedia phones, and the convergence of digital media distribution with traditional telecom.”

Digital video and IP, he added, have blurred industry boundaries, redefining who produces content, how it is distributed, and where and when people choose to watch.

“IPTV is finally becoming a credible alternative to cable, and video over mobile is about to enter the mainstream. While video puts stress on the infrastructure, it also heralds tremendous opportunities—for conventional network capacity, new technologies, and creative ideas to tap a rich new phase of operational and business convergence,” Zita said.

Alongside the popular broadband and IP discussions will be talks on issues like disaster management and connectivity across the Pacific.