BOGOTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has announced its first confirmed speakers for its annual Global Summit, which will be held in Bogota, Colombia (April 26-28 2016). A recent report published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), titled “Working Together to Connect the World by 2020” notes that only 3.2 billion people are online, while 4.2 billion remain offline. The report proposes an investment of $450 billion globally to connect the next 1.5 billion people and highlights how a country’s regulatory environment impacts mobile and fixed broadband penetration. The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit will bring together regulators and key decision makers from across the world to discuss which spectrum policies will best improve the ubiquity and quality of broadband connectivity globally.
This year the annual Global Summit will feature unrivalled expertise on spectrum sharing policies. Recently confirmed speakers include Mr Mario Maniewicz, Deputy Director, Radiocommunications Bureau, ITU and Gilbert Camacho Mora, President of SUTEL, Costa Rica’s telecoms regulator. Mr Camacho Mora has more than 27 years in the telecommunications industry, where he has worked in both the public and private sectors. Spectrum allocation and management is one of SUTEL’s main objectives in 2016 and Mr Camacho Mora will share Costa Rica’s experiences, its current IMT spectrum allocation and future developments as Costa Rica looks to become a connected society by 2025. Also joining the agenda will be Mr Oscar Leon, Executive Secretariat of CITEL, the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission and Mr David Luna, Minister of Information Technology and Communications, Colombia. High level representatives from the FCC, Ofcom and Industry Canada, and many other of the world’s top regulators have also been invited to speak.
Speaking ahead of the Summit, Mr Leon commented: “Statistics show that in the Americas, high levels of poverty and inequality continue to delay social progress, education and many other aspects related to the development of the region. That is why private enterprises and public policy makers are aware of our responsibility to use ICT in the fight against poverty. Since ICT has become an essential part of long-term economic development for our countries, I consider it essential to implement next-generation wireless networks and the Internet of Things as vehicles to speed equitable access to ICT and broadband Internet in the Americas.”
With the current state of broadband access and deployment of spectrum sharing access technologies still remaining poor in Latin America and many other parts of the world, the Global Summit will act as a catalyst to create future long term growth and to implement necessary spectrum policies to help provide Internet access to the four billion unconnected worldwide.
Martha Liliana Suárez Peñaloza, Director General of Agencia Nacional del Espectro (ANE), Colombia, which is co-hosting the Summit alongside the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, commented on the agenda saying, “We are very excited and pleased with the high level of speakers and the focus of the agenda. Highlighting key areas such as the challenges for universal and affordable connectivity in Latin America and beyond will ensure that the Global Summit becomes the setting to discuss the main connectivity concerns of Latin American governments and the starting point to create long term positive impacts for the region.”
The Global Summit will span three days, with the first day playing host to a workshop for regulators on spectrum sharing best practices. The second day of the Summit will kick-off the main conference, with a session on country viewpoints towards the analogue to digital television switch-over. Other discussions include new developments in spectrum sharing (i.e. unlicensed allocations, unlicensed managed access, and new Wi-Fi and LTE technologies and standards), and opportunities for dynamic spectrum access in the 2.3GHz, 3.5GHZ, 5GHz bands and above.
The final day of the Summit will see speakers discussing innovative use cases for dynamic spectrum access technologies such as in transportation, rural broadband, education, healthcare, disaster recovery and more. ITU’s Mr Maniewicz will then provide attendees with an update of ITU’s views on spectrum sharing around the globe, ahead of ITU’s Global Symposium for Regulators the following month.
“The Global Summit in Bogota, Colombia in April will be the most important occasion for joining international spectrum policy experts from across the world,” said Professor H Nwana, Executive Director of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. “This summit is essential for igniting the necessary conversations about spectrum sharing in Latin America and bringing the required expertise from around the world to the region. We are delighted with the standard of speakers attending and look forward to confirming more high quality experts as speakers as the Global Summit gets closer.”
To stay updated with the full Global Summit 2016 agenda as more speakers are announced, please visit http://www.dynamicspectrumalliance.org/global-summit/ or follow @dynamicspectrum and use the hashtag #DSA16GS on Twitter.
-ENDS-
About the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance
The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance is a global organization advocating for laws and regulations that will lead to more efficient and effective spectrum utilization. The DSA’s membership spans organizations from around the world, working to create innovative solutions that will increase the amount of available spectrum to the benefit of consumers and businesses alike. Visit http://www.dynamicspectrumalliance.org/.
