The opening ceremony of the 9th edition of the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR-09) & Global Industry Leaders' Forum (GILF) was held today under the High Patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Lebanon, General Michel Sleiman represented by HE Minister Gebran Bassil. This annual event brought together 648 participants, Ministers, Members of Parliament, telecommunications regulators, policy makers and service providers, from 89 countries.

Dr. Kamal Shehadi, Chairman of the TRA of Lebanon and Chairman of GSR -09, thanked all those who have made this event possible and the participants for showing commitment to the global community of ICT regulators, service providers, national and international civil servants, and professionals.

Dr. Shehadi pointed out that the TRA in Lebanon, in its efforts to liberalize telecommunications, has been engaged during the past two years, in creating the conditions for Lebanon to leap-frog and reclaim a leading position in telecommunications. Despite the political conditions prevailing in the country, the TRA has made significant progress in a very short time span. It is now ready to move ahead and liberalize mobile, international, and the remaining bottlenecks to broadband telecommunication services (namely, the core and metro networks) in 2010.

He also explained that regulations are based on universal values of justice and fairness, equal treatment, non-discrimination and transparency. These values have been drafted into law in many countries. However, regulation is also based on concepts of universal service and right-to-access to telecommunications services. These concepts change over time and are not only shaped by technology and politics but also by crises. As policy-makers, regulators and stakeholdres from the private sector gathered in Beirut, it is important that we consider not only the challenge posed by the world financial and economic crises but also the opportunity and the promise of better regulation.

Three sessions followed the grand opening of the GSR 09 and GILF, and fostered vibrant discussions among the regulators and the head of industry related to very crucial and essential topics:

• Impact of the financial crisis on ICT: Industry Leaders emphasized on the importance of having a harmonized regulation in markets across regions and the importance of releasing harmonized radio frequency spectrum today, because delays in allocating the spectrum will have negative impact on broadband development and thus on stimulating economic growth.
  
  
• Universal Access Policies in the 21st century: Panelists revisited the need of Universal Access and shared their experience and confirmed that the success of such policies is due to local authority initiatives and the positive attitude of the incumbent as in the case of France.
  
  
• IP and Telecom convergence: Panelists shared their experience in telecom convergence, for example Verizon has invested heavily in its state of the arts fiber backbone in addition to its wireless (LTE) network and is offering true convergent services (triple and quadruple play services on their fixed and wireless networks) to their costumers.
  
  

In parallel, regulators associations such as FRATEL, ARAGNET, WATRA, EACO, ARTAC and Regulatel held a meeting to share their experience. Each group presented its structure, objectives, the main activities involving member regulators and the benefits of having such groups were highlighted.

GSR will resume tomorrow with a reporting session where both GILF and GSR chairmen will share with the participants the outcome of today’s meetings: ICT industry conclusion and Regional Regulator’s Associations report.

To view Dr. Kamal Shehadi's speech, click on the preferred language:

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