11:00 - 12:00

PANEL DISCUSSION: ENSURING AN ADAPTIVE APPROACH TO A2P MESSAGING

With global mobile penetration standing at 98.6% and SMS being a standard feature of all mobiles, many experts predict that A2P messaging is set to grow substantially over the next couple of years. With a 98% open rate, A2P messaging is allowing for businesses to directly engage with customers and opening new opportunities for carriers.  

• Understand recent developments in carriers’ A2P solutions and best practice for monetisation
• How are businesses utilising this opportunity to ensure ROI on marketing investments?
• To what extent is A2P messaging providing a competitive alternative to OTTs in places of less reliable internet?
• To what extent has the industry overcome challenges in grey routes? And what can the industry do to negotiate perceptions that A2P messaging is an unreliable service?
• How is the industry working together to ensure that all components of the ecosystem are delivering best practice?
• How are carriers tailoring their security services to the new threats in A2P messaging?

12:30 - 14:00

NETWORKING LUNCH

14:00 - 14:30

PRESENTATION: THE NEXT ERA OF MOBILE MESSAGING

Millions of businesses rely on SMS to communicate with mobile consumers. Credit card fraud alerts, flight status updates, and package delivery notifications are common examples of business-to-consumer SMS. Though SMS meets the consumers’ needs for instant notification, it lacks the interactivity and personalization consumers expect.

RCS Business Messaging upgrades SMS with branding, rich media and analytics that lead to better consumer engagement. With RBM, businesses can bring branded, interactive mobile experiences, right to the default messaging app. By 2020, 86% of smartphones will be RBM-enabled. Join a Google expert to learn about the future of messaging and how major brands like Subway and Booking.com are already using this technology to reach their customers.
 

14:00 - 21:00

REGISTRATION OPENING HOURS

14:30 - 16:00

FUTURE OF MESSAGING: RICH BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS

MEF’s Future of Messaging Programme explores how rich communication channels are changing the messaging landscape. The session will provide exclusive market insights and use cases with experts from across the ecosystem sharing their experiences and predictions.

2:30PM Introduction from the MEF CEO 

2:35PM Analyst Presentation: The Fight for Dominance Between RCS and the OTTs

Speaker: Gavin Patterson, Chief Data Analyst, Mobilesquared

2:50PM  Panel Discussion: Future of Messaging: Rich Business Communications

3:35PM Q&A

Hosted by MEF Forum

17:30 - 20:00

OFFICIAL OPENING

18:30 - 20:00

OPENING KEYNOTE: ONLINE VIDEO: HOW YOUTUBE CHANGED EVERYTHING

Sponsored by

Join Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, for his Opening Keynote, “Online Video: How YouTube Changed Everything" on Sunday 23 June. 

YouTube is a global phenomenon. With an average of 1 billion hours of video watched per day, and 400 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube has transformed the content industry end-to-end through talent, production, distribution, and consumption.

Sam Evans, Partner, Delta Partners, will interview Steve Chen about YouTube's story from origination through to its growth, and tackle some of the key issues facing online video today, with speculations on what will be the next big-thing to transform the video landscape.  

Moderator: 
Sam Evans, Partner, Delta Partners

Interviewee: 
Steve Chen, Co-Founder, YouTube

All registered attendees are invited to attend, however you must RSVP to secure your place as there is limited seating available.

07:00 - 17:00

REGISTRATION OPENING HOURS

08:00 - 17:30

EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS

09:30 - 10:30

PANEL DISCUSSION: UPDATE FROM THE GLOBAL LEADERS' FORUM - ACHIEVING FRICTIONLESS & SECURE COMMERCE

The ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), the leadership body consisting of the executives from the world’s leading International Carriers, will provide an update on some of the key collaborative initiatives, including:

Journey to frictionless commerce: How the GLF is driving the industry to achieve capacity on demand

George Sloan (from AT&T and lead of the GLF working group) will announce the outcome of a production trial of automated order APIs developed by MEF. The trial is a part of a wider GLF initiative that aims to achieve frictionless commerce by defining the commercial frameworks that will facilitate interoperable capacity-on-demand services internationally across networks.

Fight against fraud: Update of actions GLF is taking to eradicate fraud from the international wholesale industry

Daniel Kurgan (from BICS and the lead of the GLF working group) will provide update on the GLF’s effort to combat fraud, and announce the next step in the fight which sees the recommendation to move the industry to a more standardised KPIs developed by the i3forum

Hosted by ITW Global Leaders' Forum

11:00 - 12:00

PANEL DISCUSSION: THE CARRIER ROLE IN FORGING THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum has described the fourth industrial revolution as being “characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres”, where do carriers see their role within this new age?

• How will the digital transformation change the customer experience? 
• To what extent is interoperability becoming more essential in preparation for the fourth industrial revolution? 
• What are the key services that carriers will be developing? 
• How are carriers incorporating the necessary levels of automation within their networks to service the next generation of customer platform based services?  
• How are carriers shaping sustainable business models for the predicted data-intensive services such as IoT, smart cities, autonomous cars?
   

13:30 - 14:30

PANEL DISCUSSION: ZERO TOUCH NETWORKS: UNDERSTANDING THE POSSIBILITY

While the potentials of the virtualised network have been a key area of discussion for several years, the industry is now
looking forward and experiencing the reality of the operational challenges that come with managing these incredibly
complex networks. Businesses are now starting to look at the possibility of a zero-touch provisioning system. Join this
discussion and explore:

• What are the defining features of a ‘zero touch’ network?
• How will a zero touch network practically implement the principles of virtualisation?
• To what extent will AI be essential for achieving this possibility?
• What are the main motivations for moving towards a zero touch network?
• What are the current biggest hurdles for implementation?
   

14:30 - 14:50

FCC UPDATE - WHAT’S COMING THAT COULD AFFECT YOUR BOTTOM LINE

This session will provide an update on key U.S. regulatory developments and
explore the financial impact on communication providers in response to:

• The proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger
• Stemming illegal robocalling
• Reforming switched access charges
• Implementing rural call completion along with covered and intermediate provider requirements
• Eliminating reduced prices obtained from ILEC unbundling and resale obligations

15:10 - 15:30

FROM AI, IOT, 5G – A SHIFT FROM WEST TO EAST

China’s determination to innovate faster and wider than other nations is a key feature of today’s world. The impact of focused state and private investment is proving highly effective leading to widely cited competition concerns and perceived wider security issues. To what extent is this just a feature of a shift in the commercial and technology balance from West to East? The session will seek to place some facts and figures into the forecasts and predictions receiving wide coverage. It will also contextualise the APAC position in emerging markets and focus on trends in China covering data capture, AI and applications. Clarity of policy arising from the conclusion of the US/China trade talks will also be examined. 

15:30 - 16:30

PANEL DISCUSSION: MITIGATING SECURITY THREATS AS A WHOLESALE CARRIER

Nexusguard recently reported more than a fivefold rise in the average size of DDoS attacks in the second quarter compared with a year earlier. With DDoS attacks on the rise and carriers and cloud hosting services as the most vulnerable for attack, how is the carrier community preparing for the next wave of threats. 

• How are carriers preparing their security services to ensure future scalability and efficient implementation? 
• With a predicted increase in DDoS attacks due to the rise in IoT applications, what will be the expected scope of security services for carriers? 
• What is the update on industry collaboration? 
• What services are carriers seeing as the most effective to incorporate within their portfolio?
   

16:00 - 17:30

PANEL DISCUSSION: WOMEN IN TELCO: CREATING A PRACTICAL PATHWAY TO A DIVERSE WORKPLACE

There are still challenges in female engagement when it comes to male dominated industries. This panel discussion will provide an opportunity to promote incentives on diversity and share experiences of how to practically overcome day to day challenges. 

• How is gender diversity in telecoms countering an ageing workforce?
• How can the industry at large best engage with female talent and improve retention?
• Examine STEM-based initiatives and identify key areas of improvement
• Explore ways to best navigate and manage day-to-day challenges

 

Hosted by WOMEN IN TELCO

07:00 - 17:00

REGISTRATION OPENING HOURS

08:00 - 17:30

EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS

08:30 - 11:30

PANEL DISCUSSION: ENABLING AFRICA’S DIGITAL ECONOMY

8:30am - 9:15am - Networking Breakfast

9:15am - 9:30am - Analyst Presentation

9:30am - 10:30am - Panel Discussion and Q&A

Connectivity Infrastructure: 

• What strategies are increasing broadband penetration across the continent? 
• Are there regulatory models or business models that are yielding results worthy of emulation?  

Demand Drivers/Digital Economy:

• Where are we seeing a rapid acceleration of the Digital economy in Africa?
• Are these local data centres adequately prepared for upcoming capacity increases and enterprise demand?

Subsea cable updates:

• What are the expectations for the new cable systems planned for the continent? 
• How does Africa compare with patterns witnessed in other continents in terms of wholesale capacity pricing? 

Satellites:

• We continue to hear about more satellites being deployed to connect the unconnected. How well are existing satellites doing that today and what role do satellites play in an increasingly fiberised and 4G/5G world?
• What are the key differentiators between the current climate and previous eras of satellite deployment? 

Market Dynamics: 

• What can the industry do to address the need for low latency applications and increase local traffic exchange on the continent?

 

 

Hosted by MainOne, Avanti PLC

09:30 - 10:30

PANEL DISCUSSION: TRANSFORMING INTER-CARRIER SETTLEMENT – GLF LAUNCHES DEVELOPMENT OF DLT-ENABLED SETTLEMENT PLATFORM

The ITW Global Leaders’ Forum will announce the launch of an industry project to develop a DLT-enabled settlement platform for the global ICT Service Provider Industry.  

DLT technologies can provide significant benefits that can revolutionise the inter-ICT Service Provider settlement process through enabling automation and improving security. This will facilitate carriers to settle new types of traffic, underpinning network and service innovation, and save costs.  

The GLF has developed an approach for a common governance framework to serve the whole industry with the purpose of accelerating the adoption of these automated settlement applications. This is achieved by avoiding fragmentation and by facilitating a more effective development of open-source standards and APIs that enable cross-carrier interoperability of the new, DLT-enabled services.

The GLF will announce and provide details of the project and invite every ICT Service Provider to participate in the industry transformation.

Hosted by ITW Global Leaders' Forum

11:00 - 12:30

DISCOVER WHY HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING IS HOT . . . AND HOW TO KEEP IT COOL

 

 

Critical environments within the data center are dynamically evolving. Within the next five years, industry analysts expect significant growth in high-density applications and workloads due to the increased utilization of big data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality. As the adoption of these applications increases, they will expand the requirements within the data center, specifically around cooling techniques.

 

According to research by IDC, the reliability of power and cooling infrastructure is the number one selection criteria for choosing an outsourced data center provider, and it’s no surprise given the heightened usage of internet-based applications via smartphones, tablets and connected devices. Attend this panel discussion and discover: 

 

• Consumption patterns driving today’s CPU intensive applications

• The challenges end users face deploying high heat output application infrastructure 

• How Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the largest U.S. Department of Energy science and energy laboratory, is leveraging supercomputing to deliver transformative solutions to compelling problems in energy and security 

• The importance of aligning IT with facilities personnel to ensure the right infrastructure is in place for high-density workloads

• Advanced cooling technologies needed to efficiently and reliably power and cool mission-critical facilities given our new reality

• New requirements that you need to evaluate when selecting your next data center 

Sponsored by

 

Hosted by Vantage Data Centers

11:00 - 12:00

PANEL DISCUSSION: GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY: SERVICING INTERNATIONAL SUBSEA DEMAND

With a data intensive future on the very close horizon, subsea carriers and big internet giants are all competing for a piece of the data pie. With demands in capacity only predicted to increase, how is this period of unprecedented subsea cable deployment unique and what will the impact be for this long established industry. 

• Where is the next global subsea hub? 
• How has big internet giants’ inclusion within the subsea space impacted the future roadmap for consortiums?  
• How do we ensure that we maintain innovation without compromising on sustainability?
• Will the subsea industry incorporate machine learning in the near future? If so, how?
• Are there identifiable trends for deploying fibre with other subsea infrastructures? 
• How are international carriers addressing the challenges in decommissioning cables?
• How are subsea cables impacting the data centre ecosystem?
• How can a data centre operator benefit from supporting subsea cable systems?
• How does global interconnectivity play a role in selecting a data centre provider?

13:00 - 14:30

THE FUTURE NETWORK - HOW CONTENT DEMANDS, NEW NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE AND 5G ARE SHAPING THE NETWORK OF TOMORROW

Clouds, Content and Services are migrating from their traditional homes to a raft of proximity based, transitory, dynamic locations, driven by users who continue to diversify how they connect and harness these resources. Join Colt and partners as they discuss the trends driving intelligence towards the edge of the network, how to navigate the future network of content, and if 5G is going to shake up the network as we know it today.

 

Hosted by Colt Technology Services

14:00 - 15:00

PANEL DISCUSSION: SECURING ROI FROM NETWORK EXPANSION AND NEXT-GEN 5G NETWORKS

An interactive discussion that will explore the challenges for expanding networks into unserved and underserved markets, while also meeting universal service obligations, increased traffic demands and upgrades on their existing deployments. With 5G just around the corner, MNOs must optimise for the connectivity available today, while preparing for the opportunity of future networks. During this discussion, leaders will share examples of how they are overcoming these challenges, and how next-generation backhaul technologies may offer unique capabilities for intelligent connectivity.

 

• How do MNOs and fixed operators approach business cases for network expansion?
• How do you build flexible networks to right-size networks inline with ARPUs?
• What is the role of next-generation backhaul technologies in improving business cases?
• How can hybrid networks help the business case in connecting remote areas?
• How do we plan for designing hybrid terrestrial and satellite networks? What applications will be enabled with this hybrid approach?

 

 

Hosted by Telesat

15:00 - 16:30

SEA-ME-WE 5 INTELLIGENCE FORUM

The session will cover the most recent up-dates related to the 20,000-km SEA-ME-WE 5 cable system, spanning over 17 countries from Southeast Asia to Western Europe, which is a technological breakthrough and marks a global communications milestone. It was originally designed with a capacity of 24 Terabits per second. The system is currently under upgrade to over 36 Terabit per second on 3-fibre pairs, fully capable of accommodating the future demand of data from other bandwidth-intensive applications such as enterprise data exchange, internet TV and online gaming. The SEA-ME-WE 5 cables’ advanced 100Gbps technology is expected to meet the quadrupling of bandwidth demand between Europe and Asia, providing the lowest latency and further enhancing the network diversity and resilience. In contrast with other submarine cable systems, the SEA-ME-WE 5’s main endpoints are carrier-neutral/open Points-of-Presence (PoPs) and not just Cable Landing Stations (CLS).

 

Hosted by SEA-ME-WE-5

16:30 - 17:00

INTERNET OF MOVING THINGS (IOMT) - ARCHITECTURE AND APPLICATIONS

The mobile revolution created an unprecedented opportunity for connection: no location, no matter how far was out of reach. The concept of connectivity then turned more local and the possibility of providing connectivity to previously static household items became a very feasible reality. As the industry looks forward, the Internet of Moving Things (IoMT) opens the door to areas previously unexplored: providing connections for moving things. Join this session and learn about the complex architectures
and applications of IoMT in the real world.
 

07:00 - 13:00

REGISTRATION OPENING HOURS

08:00 - 15:30

EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS

08:45 - 17:30

COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE SUMMIT

Please go here to see the full agenda. Please note that the Comms Infra Summit is a standalone event, separate to ITW and is not automatically included within the ITW delegate pass. Separate passes for the Comms Infra Summit can be purchased here.