CmmunicAsia2009, held in Singapore during June 16-19, 2009, saw a broad spectrum of technology providers, equipment vendors and operators come together to display their products and services. With the economic recession making its effect felt, the event this year was comparatively downsized, with the usual seven halls at the expo being reduced to four. The visitor turnout, though about 13-15 per cent lower than last year, was still significant at 54,000.

The list of exhibitors included companies from all telecom domains. Although there were over 1,900 exhibitors, some of the large companies like Nokia-Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson were missing.

Key sessions
 The four-day event began with an address by Scott Goodstein, external online director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Goodstein talked about his experience on integrating mobile marketing for Obama’s campaign, and shared his views on how companies can make use of mobile marketing to increase their brand share in the market and augment revenues.

This was followed by the CEO Perspectives session, with the theme “The silver lining ?? Downturn-driven opportunities for Asian operators”. Four panelists, consisting of top representatives from four leading global telecom groups, discussed how telecom operators need to invest in their networks, go all-IP and embrace the competition in matters like infrastructure sharing. They also agreed that the global recession is as good a time as any for the companies to get moving in that direction. Dato Zam Isa, group CEO of Telekom Malaysia, said, “The business model for telecom operators is not about voice any more. You have to change your mindset and move up the value chain and become an enabler of any-to-any services.

Michael Lai, CEO of Malaysian WiMax operator Packet One Networks, said that all-IP networks will inevitably change the operators’ business models. Operators who want to lead the postrecession market, he said, will need to change their business models.

The Next Generation Broadband forum had over 25 speakers from companies including Intel Corporation, NTT DoCoMo, the CDMA Development Group, Huawei and Ericsson. One of the speakers, Peter Waters, partner at Gilbert & Tobin, said that next generation networks (NGNs) are the new PSTN, and that the decisions being made now will impact competition in the next 20 years.

Many speakers at the sessions raised a common point that the governments considering taking national broadband infrastructure initiatives should stop treating wireless like a cash cow and, instead, should consider it as a tool to connect all citizens.

Michael Bjarhov, Asia-Pacific director, government and industry relations, Ericsson, said that governments mapping broadband initiatives are too obsessed with fibre and are not giving mobile its due as a broadband solution. According to him, considering the advances in smaller, low-cost rural base stations that run on alternative power, high speed packet access (HSPA) and eventually long term evolution (LTE) are cost-effective ways to connect the rural areas with multi-megabyte data connections.

A hot topic at the conference this year was internet protocol TV (IPTV). The day-long discussions held at the IPTV session, chaired by David Wood, head of emerging media at the European Broadcasting Union, focused on technical issues as well as business opportunities such as how IPTV can be differentiated from other TV services. The session also saw discussion on deriving advertising revenues from IPTV services. Participants at the session also talked about the possibility of combining IPTV’s video-on-demand feature with internet features such as social networking and virtual sites. It was also discussed whether this combination would be successful considering that internet-based content often lacks the right business model.

Green focus
 Like most companies around the world, wireless operators are also looking for ways to go green and decrease their environmental impact. “Historically, energy saving has not been a top priority in network design, but the drive towards lowering operating costs is changing that mindset,” said Anil Trehan, chief technology officer, carrier solutions, Andrew Wireless.

CommunicAsia saw over 40 companies showcasing their green solutions. Indian vendor VNL launched what it claims is the world’s first 100 per cent solar-powered GSM base station designed specifically for off-grid remote areas.

Companies like ZTE, Samsung, Norway-based Eltek Valere and Canada’s TelcoBridges also displayed their green products. ZTE stated that it has revamped its production system to eliminate hazardous materials, reduce product size and use recycled materials for packaging. Samsung promoted its Blue Earth Dream phone, made from recycled plastic and featuring a solar-powered panel to recharge the battery. TelcoBridges said that its new compact, high density media gateway offers energy savings of up to 80 per cent.

Key launches and announcements
 The show saw a slew of product launches including the latest mobile devices from the market leaders. Samsung was in the spotlight as it launched six new high The visitor turnout, though about 13-15 per cent lower than last year, was still significant at 54,000. speed smartphones.

LG unveiled its Crystal GD900 handset, the world’s first transparent phone. The company also revealed new offerings such as the updated LG Viewty Smart GC900 and LG Joy GM730 handsets. The company also announced plans to launch three devices based on Google’s Android platform in the second half of this year.

Sony Ericsson unveiled three phones, the Satio, Aino and Yari, which offer free content such as movies, music videos and games, in addition to the existing camera and Walkman features. Huawei Technologies launched two smartphones, the Android-powered U8230 and the C8000 which supports Windows Mobile. The U8230 allows users to switch between full and half Qwerty keyboards and navigate between programmes via a 3.5-inch LCD touch screen.

Bridgewater Systems launched a mobile usage management application for iPhone and BlackBerry handsets. The application allows subscribers to track their SMS, voice and data usage in real time as well as set limits on mobile usage and roaming.

Yahoo! announced the launch of the new Yahoo! Mobile portal in nine more countries and on a 100 more devices.

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom announced an agreement with Yahoo! to make oneSearch the default mobile search service on its “emome” portal. The cobranded Yahoo! oneSearch will provide Chunghwa’s subscribers with targeted search information on a wide range of topics from news and financial information to weather conditions and lottery results.

The Broadband Forum, meanwhile, announced the latest broadband statistics at the event, which showed Asia leading the way with the highest additions in broadband connections in the January-March quarter of 2009. According to a report prepared by research agency Point Topic for the Broadband Forum, Asia accounted for 45 per cent of the global additions of 16.6 million broadband lines during the quarter. The total number of broadband lines in the world now stands at 429.9 million, with China accounting for 88 million lines and India having 6.1 million lines.

Notwithstanding the lower turnout and smaller size of the event, the organisers seemed to be satisfied with the show. “In spite of the global economic downturn, businesses are still looking towards Asia to drive the new wave of growth in communications. As the world gradually moves towards economic recovery, international business platforms like CommunicAsia present an opportunity for companies to come together and gear up to cater to the new opportunities.