ITU Telecom World – A Different Atmosphere

This week at ITU Telecom World I hosted a series of panel discussions at the WiMAX ecosystem pavilion. These sessions we moderated most graciously by Dr. Phil Marshall of Yankee Group, and Monica Paolini of Senza Fili Consulting. These sessions were one of the most popular attractions on the show floor, and I would like to publicly thank each of my panelists and moderators for their participation.

This was my first time at ITU Telecom World. I knew that the audience might include a nice mix of regulators, but despite this foresight I was still unprepared for what I encountered. This week I was able to meet (and influence) people from parts of the globe that have been traditionally the most difficult for me to penetrate. So, while like other trade shows overall attendance was down, I still found my time in Geneva to be quite valuable.

What struck me most about conducting these sessions, and the reason for this entry, was the nature of the questions that were asked. For most of my time in the telecommunications industry, I have lived in a world that revolves around competition. I have been inundated with competitive marketing, tradeshows with big vendor booths, fancy new devices and services, and tagline after tagline. The questions asked in most of the conference sessions I have attended trend towards the combative, with journalists, analysts and competitors all looking to gain an edge.

This was different. Regulators are different.

Regulators have (or should have) an obligation to the government they represent, and therefore also to the people they serve. They want to cut through the hype and really understand a technology, its potential, its roadmap, its applications, and how to, in the case of wireless broadband, make it work with the spectrum they have. The questions they asked were not to score publicity points, but rather to get educated as to how to best help their people. These questions were of course no less pointed; however, there was a clear difference in tone and tenor.

I sincerely hope that the sessions we held were of real value to the regulators that attended, and that the insight gained will help them in making more educated decisions about telecommunications policy.