Programme Presentations

Faris Awartani

Biography: Mr. Faris Zuhair Faris Awartani is the Founder and CEO of Modern Scientific and Electronic Co. in Jordan and International Telecom & Electrical Corp. in Palestine, both active in the field of Construction Communications and Educational Equipments since 1997.
January 1989 he started working for Modern Scientific &  Electronic Co. at the Telecommunication Division in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. January 1991 he initiated the Computer Division within this company and worked there as a Manager until December 1993. From January 1994 to June 1996 he was the Deputy General Manager.
He became a partner in Bazy Trading Co. and created their Telecommunications Division. He was a board member for Jordan Gulf Bank, Falcon for Investment & Financial Services and Al Salam for Investment Co. until 2000; for the Association Health Care Management  Inc. until 2002; and partner and board member at Al Araab for Contracting Co. and at Al Jallaf Factory for Metal Works in Dubai. He is a member of the Jordanian Businessmen Association.
Since 2009, Mr. Awartani is elected Chair of the FTTH Council Europe Middle East Group.
Mr. Faris Awartani holds a B.A. of Engineering Management from the Southern Methodist University, USA. 

Richard Thomas

Biography: Richard Thomas is director of marketing activities at Prysmian Telecom Cables and Systems. He has more than 25 years experience in the telecoms industry in both technical and commercials positions having started as a design engineer in fibre optic cabling in the early years of the technology. He is based in Milan, Italy at the headquarters of Prysmian - formerly Pirelli - where he has worked for the last 15 years. Mr Thomas has a degree in Physics and an MBA, both from the University of Wales. He is Vice Chairman of Eurotelcab, the European association of cable manufacturers and has been active with FTTH Council Europe since 2004 being a Member of the Board for the last 2 years.

Tariq Albahri

Biography: Tariq Albahri is the VP of the Fixed Access Network planning and implementation in the Network development division of Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company “du”.
He oversees Engineering and advanced technology initiatives in the access and IP field like broadband IP access technology, FTTx solutions etc.
Previously, Tariq was the senior director of the IP backbone transport network. Tariq was handling the IP projects and network development at TECOM Telecom before joining du. He was an integral member of the team that launched all-IP based telecom services in Dubai Internet City in 2001.
He has been with du from the formation of the company and has served in various roles in both du and TECOM Telecom.

Kassim Al-Hassani

Biography: Kassim Al Hassani is Director General for ITPC (Iraqi Telecommunications & Post Company). Before this Kassim was Basrah Telecom Manager for over a year. He has previous experience in the field of Communication and Broadcasting as a consultant for BT Cellnet, Cable and Wireless, T-Mobile, NTL and Ericsson and was also Systems Manager for Associated Press Television (APTV), Reuters and Channel 5. He worked with top consultancy firms such as Cap Gemini, Deloitte & Touché and Hays Consulting for real time projects such as Ireland Election System (RTE), as well as electronics projects services, such as eShop and eGain for Cambridge County Council. Kassim installed a large number of Newsrooms systems for Arabic Satellite Television Channels, such as JSC, Bahrain TV, Oman TV, Nile and Egypt channels during his time with Associated Press Television. He is qualified with a degree in Computer Studies and Information Systems and postgraduate in Telecommunication Regulation from Westminster University as well as a MA in Communications policy.

Eric Festraets

Biography: In 2007, Eric joined the FTTH Council Europe as vice-chairman of the Deployment and Operations Committee and in March 2009, Eric took over the chair position of this D&O Committee. In 2010, he was elected Member of the Board.
Eric Festraets was born on July 15th, 1961 in Ukkel, near Brussels (Belgium). He obtained the civil engineering degree (electronics) at the University of Louvain in 1985, married in 1993 with Lies Vandeveegaete and has two boys, Jakob (1995) and Klaas (1998).
Eric started his career with IBM Belgium as Systems Engineer for Midsize Mainframe Systems in 1986, offering techno-commercial support for customers of the Government and Public Sector (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Internal Affairs, NATO,…).
Eric joined Alcatel in 1993 as Product Manager for ATM products, being responsible for the decision review process of the ATM Subscriber Unit, being predecessor of the ATM DSLAM, the product bringing Alcatel to broadband access (DSL) market leadership in the later nineties.
From 1999 onwards, Eric focused in Alcatel more on Solutions and Product Marketing for Broadband Access and in 2002, he founded the Alcatel Fast Forward Program, covering consultative marketing for broadband operators. The Fast Forward team (with Eric as team-leader) conducted successfully longer term projects with major DSL operators in Europe, APAC (China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) and Latin America (Mexico, Brasil). Topics being covered were Broadband Marketing, Competitive Analysis, Broadband Strategy, Economics and Operational Excellence (all domains beyond products and network architectures). Step by step, all Fiber-To-The-Home aspects were added to the total broadband picture.  Today, Fast Forward is helping all market players marketing, deploying, planning and operating broadband (copper and fiber) networks.

Louay Abou Chanab

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Louay Abou Chanab is a Senior Associate with Booz & Company in Beirut. He specializes in ICT sector policy making, regulatory management, and wholesale growth strategies for the communications and media industries.
Louay has recently been engaged in two national FTTH efforts in the Middle East, formulating required policies, developing adequate regulations, and recommending optimal PPP models to adopt.
Additionally, Louay works with leading telecom operators in the region helping them develop retail and wholesale growth strategies, as well as complying and shaping regulatory regimes in their respective countries.
His work covered most of the MENA region namely Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Overall, he has 15 years of management experience and has spent the last decade focusing on the telecom industry in operational and consulting roles. Louay holds a BS in Management from the Lebanese American University and an MBA from ESCP-EAP in France.

Abstract: Broadband facilitates innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity. Countries with 80 percent broadband penetration are more than twice as innovative as countries with 40 percent penetration. Increasing broadband penetration by 10 percent translated into a 1.5 percent increase in the country’s labor productivity—a vital competitive advantage. Despite widespread recognition of broadband’s significant socioeconomic impact, more than 75 percent of the world’s households are not connected to a broadband network. As a result, while governments focus on bridging the digital divide, another chasm is forming, separating nations that have access to ultra-high-speed broadband connections from those that don’t. Three key inhibitors are preventing governments and the private sector from collaborating to ensure adequate investments in national broadband infrastructure: the sheer magnitude of these investments, revenue prospects, and regulatory uncertainty. The public and private sectors need to consider new paradigms in order to ensure the future viability of the sector, break the investment gridlock, and open the door for investment in national broadband networks. Governments must consider broadband a national imperative and be proactive in securing universal broadband. Operators need to deploy new business models to diffuse investment risk.  

Samer Salameh

Biography: Samer F. Salameh has 19 years of experience as an executive leader in the telecommunications industry in the United States, Latin America and the Middle East. He has a very well-known reputation in the international telecommunications field as a distinguished marketing strategist, a turn around specialist and a broker of multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisitions. 
Mr Salameh’s is the chief executive officer of Totalplay with Grupo Salinas in Mexico bringing his innovative thinking and leadership to his current position. TotalPlay is an FTTH deployment offering Quadruple Play services covering 42 major cities and 16 million households by 2015.
Prior to joining Totalplay, Mr. Salameh was chairman and chief executive officer of Alfa, a leading GSM operator in Lebanon. During his tenure from 2009 – 2010, he increased Alfa’s customer base to over one million subscribers representing 100% growth, increased the company’s market share from 38% to 45%, and swapped out the entire infrastructure.
Mr. Salameh chaired and managed from 1994 to 2001 the US based activities of Telmex and Grupo Carso. From 1997 – 2001 he also was the Chairman and CEO of Prodigy Communications Corp, the ISP pioneer. As Prodigy’s leader he successfully reversed the company’s fortunes, grew the customer base from 200k to over 3 Million and completed an IPO in February 1999 and listed the company on the NASDAQ before selling it to AT&T.
From 2002 to 2008 he founded and/or managed various companies in the United States and Latin America offering Voice and Data services over Satellites, Wimax, and Cellular, and managed their different offices in the North and South America as well as in Europe and Asia
Mr. Salameh holds a Masters Degree in International Business from the Fletcher School (joint degree between Harvard and Tufts), a BS in Management and Economics from Polytechnic University and is a Citicorp – Wreston Scholar.
Mr. Salameh’s broad global experience in the field of telecommunications has garnered him a highly regarded reputation, bolstered by his ability to lead and succeed in challenging situations as well as to raise billions of dollars through various instruments, including IPOs, PPM, Debt Financing, LBOs, and Venture Financing. 

Nadia Babaali

Biography: Over the course of her 20-year career in the international ICT world Nadia has held various positions in the field of European Affairs, International Development and Public Relations with large Groups such as BT Group and Telindus-Belgacom, but also with industry organisations and networks such as Opticsvalley and System@tic Paris-Region. Nadia holds an MBA from London Business School, an MA in Economics from the University of London and an MA in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Paris. 

Jan van Tetering

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Jan van Tetering leads within the EMEA region, the Network Solutions & Strategy group responsible for the Network Solutions go-to-market, portfolio management, and supporting service providers in their transformation steps towards an all-IP network.
Prior to his current role in Alcatel-Lucent, Jan led product management, business management, and presales activities for various broadband access technologies.
Jan holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

Abstract: Todays snapshot of the FTTH market reveals a multi-player arena with private and public actors. This entire ecosystem and all of its interdependencies will make sure that FTTH penetration grows significantly troughout the world (including Middle East).
The main challenges for FTTH deployment (regulation - investment - funding) and FTTH end-user adoption need to be overcome …
In order to raise FTTH adoption, operators need to understand the end-customer service demand, build the right competitive offering and create awareness in their market.
Mandatory for the "business" success of these competitive offerings is an advanced end to end (high leverage) network infrastructure, with fiber as the major cornerstone. This infrastructure will enable monetization and cost-effective delivery of residential and business end-customer services.

Peter Ludin

Biography & Abstract:

Biography: Peter Ludin is Vice President Sales EMEA for Draka Telecom Solutions within Draka Communications.
Mr Ludin, an experienced executive in the European IT and telecoms industry, joined Draka in October 2008. A Swiss National, he has a successful track record from working with senior management in the telecommunications industry across Europe and the Middle East. In a career which has spanned over 25 years he has held high level positions in international companies such as BT, Global Crossing, Digital Equipment Corporation and Honeywell Bull.
Peter reinforces Draka’s Amsterdam team to help spearhead the company’s objective of finding and securing the large-scale FTTx projects which are becoming a priority for telecom companies, municipalities and governments.
In the coming years the number of FTTH connections in the EMEA-region will continue to grow with increased acceleration, according to the latest Market Forecast of the FTTH Council Europe. This will bring an even higher focus for all network owners to reduce their total cost of ownership, both during network deployment (Capex) and network operation (Opex).

Abstract: Innovation activities performed during the past year throughout the telecoms industry have lead to several new and smart solutions for all network layers of the FTTx network. This includes the service layer, active layer, as well as the passive infrastructure layer.
Draka's innovative solutions for the passive layer which have been developed over the past year, will be described in more detail:
-Bend-insensitive fiber technology, bringing forward a new generation of small sized, compact, flexible and mechanical resistant cable products;
-New generation of compact prefab PoPs, with highly increased capacity on the same floor space;
-Indoor Cable systems with simplified and time-reduced installation practices, such as the Pre-connectorized cables and the Risernet solution, including cable, tool and tapping box;
-Ready Connect preferruled cables to be blown into microducts both indoor and outdoor;
-OSP solutions utilizing the SmartDrawXS deployment technique.
-Two breakthrough new apps in the Design Module of the Network Software Suite:
     1.  The brand new software Optimization Tools, which guarantee a 5 - 10% reduction of
         the Capex for the OSP part of the network, including the cost of civil works.
     2. The Interface Module allowing customers to jointly work with their own network
         software and the new generation of the Network Software Suite, including the
         software Optimization Tools.  

Eng. Rami Abdel Majeed

Abstract:

1.Introduction
2.Type of services to deliver to the consumers
3.Project Implementation Model
4.Priority & Decision Makers
5.Solutions (PSB)

Georges Antoun

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Georges Antoun is Head of Product Area IP & Broadband Networks (PAIB) for Ericsson.  Before joining Ericsson, Georges was Sr. VP of World Wide Sales & Operations at Redback (which Ericsson acquired in January 2007).  After the acquisition, Georges was promoted to CEO of the Redback entity.
Prior to this, Georges spent five years at Cisco Systems where he served as vice president of worldwide systems engineering and field marketing, vice president of worldwide optical operations, and also served as vice president of carrier sales.  Georges was instrumental in the successful strategy behind Cisco's entry into the service provider and optical markets. He acted as the main liaison between the customer, sales and engineering to prioritize products and features.  He has also held senior management positions at Newbridge Networks and Nynex (now Verizon Communications), where he was part of their Science and Technology Division.
Georges Antoun holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and a Masters degree in Information Systems Engineering from New York Polytechnic University.

Abstract:
- Socio-economic benefits
- Technologies
- Challenges
- Way forward

Richard Jones

Biography & Abstract:

Biography: Richard has developed strategy and innovative new business models in Europe and the Gulf - including designing new businesses for BT and creating a number of new IP based operators from scratch.
Uniquely, he and his colleagues at Ventura Team not only provide consulting but has formed its own successful operator in the highly competitive Swedish market – now serving 80,000 subscribers, with 40,000 subscribers on FTTH/X and receiving 100 megabit/s symmetric services and 750,000 homes passed.
His experience in organisational turnaround and change management has also led to an interesting project for the UN, working to reorganise the regulator in Iraq.
Richard formerly acted as Chief Commercial Officer of an IP based startup in Saudi Arabia.  He contributed from bid stage to developing all aspects of strategy, business planning and modelling for the company which is now deploying fibre for residential and business subscribers alongside the largest WiMAX deployment in the EMEA regions.
He has recently been working on building an all-fibre operator in the Gulf as well as looking at improving operations and profitability in a number of companies.
Richard has led under-fire teams across four continents – managing or turning around major telecoms programs. He has developed strategy and business cases/models across FTTx, DSL and WiMAX technologies and has formed and/or invested in a number of NGN operators.
Richard is recognised as an expert on the development of telecommunications strategy and he and his colleagues are proud to help the FTTH Council of Europe through running workshops on developing effective business cases as well as contributing to the Business Guide book.  He also runs workshops on business strategy and modelling for FTTH Forum,  FTTX MEGNA, WiMAX MEGNA and Broadband Congress as well as for operators (e.g. dU, Mobily, Omantel, Zon) and utilities.
Richard also writes books for Kogan Page on technology management including Project Management Survival (also available in Chinese and Latvian) which outlines his experience in turning around troubled telecoms operations.
He has a BSc (hons) in electronics, an MSc. Equivalent in engineering and an MBA with distinction.

Abstract: This workshop will focus on the detailed business drivers of an FTTx implementation from Ventura Team’s experience in developing strategy and business cases through to design, implementation and commercial launch of new operators across Europe and the Gulf.  This will be allied to lessons learned from their own ultra-efficient and profitable startup operator that has grown to 80,000 subs with FTTX customers receiving up to 100 megabit/s.
How can you make money and how do you avoid losing?  Making mistakes in FTTx is very costly!
The workshop will include high levels of interaction and help people learn where they should be paying attention in developing realistic plans for FTTx businesses.  It will also reference the role of other technologies such as DSL, WiMAX etc when you are developing an FTTx business plan. 
No two deployments are identical. Local conditions, regulation, penetration, costs for digging, geography etc will all impact the business case and so the workshop will cover key drivers of profitability and also share the key aspects of building a realistic business model.
It will include key aspects of business modelling combined with real world examples of costs, issues, best practices and potential traps for the unwary.
-fibre deployment cost - how can you reduce this – e.g. the sewage network in Oman is being ducted to provide low cost FTTx?
-average fibre length per home passed - how cutting 40% of a planned rollout can reduce fibre length by 66%?
-IP transit costs – how these are almost negligible in Western Europe but become limiting to profitability very quickly as you move further East (or into the Middle East/Africa)
-penetration rates – virgin territories are much better than being second or third into a neighbourhood
-mix of MDU’s and individual homes subscribing to the service has a massive impact on your capex and profitability

Jan Schindler

Biography: Mr. Schindler contributes to FTTH Council Europe activity as Chairman of its Market Intelligence Committee, with a mission to expand economical and macroeconomic information and private funding topics for investors and infrastructure deployers.
Jan Schindler, is Market Intelligence Manager and a part of the Business Development Marketing Group of Draka Communications.
After joining Draka in 2007, Mr Schindler was responsible for setting up a Market Intelligence Department to assist Draka in identifying new revenue opportunities, expose market dynamics and position the company against established and emerging direct and indirect competition. With over 10 years of professional experience in telecommunications, market research, and business consulting, Mr Schindler has a proven track record of developing successful strategic and competitive positioning campaigns for leading technology companies. These include SSA Global Technologies, and the Baan Company.
Jan holds a MS degree in Business Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Zittau, Germany, and a Bachelor degree in International Business.

Roland Montagne

Biography & Abstract:

Biography: Roland Montagne joined IDATE in 1998 and he is now Director Telecoms Business Unit. In his position he is responsible of IDATE Consulting and Research activities covering Telecoms markets. Roland is also Head of Broadband / FTTx Practice at IDATE. Mr Montagne played a leading role in previous IDATE International studies and was also Project Manager for the IDATE annual market report concerning World Broadband Access Market. He has carried out several studies dealing with European Broadband roll out and he is in charge actually of a annual Survey on Broadband Access for the DGInfSo. Since 2004 Roland Montagne is leading FTTx works at IDATE and is also the project leader, twice a year, for the FTTH Council Europe European & Middle East FTTH projects panorama (7th edition in 2010). In 2006, he achieved a major study for the French Government on scenarios for deploying Very High Broadband networks in France (cost model and Government options). Roland Montagne also carried out several strategic analyses focused on US and Asian developing FTTH markets. He has been also involved on FTTH cost model analysis for the United Kingdom as well as best practice study looking at fibre indoor deployments as well as ducts sharing. Recently, He was also leading a study on the potential of NGPON technologies as well as maturity of active wholesale for developing FTTH markets. In 2010 Roland is leading an annual worldwide FTTx watch service proposed by IDATE and covering more than 60 countries (3rd edition). Roland is a regular speaker in key events related to FTTH topics at an international level (FTTH Councils Europe, Asia Pacific and US, FTTH Forum, Broadband World Forum, IIR events, ETNO, CITI and IDATE Digiworld Summit).
Roland Montagne is a Telecommunications Engineer (ENST Paris, 1994) and received a Master on Electronics (University Paris 6, 1994). He also worked for AT&T Bell laboratories (USA) as Engineer on DWDM Optical Networks and ATM technologies. He started his carrier in the France Telecom R&D labs working on optical communications.

Abstract: This presentation will provide update of the European and Middle East FTTH market at June 2010. Indeed since 2004, IDATE has been commissioned by the FTTH Council Europe to provide a comprehensive overview of FTTH deployments in Europe 31 (EU 27 + Norway, Iceland, Switzerland & Andorra) as well as five countries in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey). Furthermore since 2009, Middle East is also covered by the survey (14 countries).
We will analyse the changes and dynamics, especially in Middle East, concerning FTTH/B at June 2010, with comparison with previous years figures. The players strategies will be detailed such as:
- Stated attitude and plans for ILECs,
- CLECs status on FTTH/B and strategies,
- Local Bodies and Power Utilities status on FTTH/B and strategies.
Then we will conclude delivering a short analysis of the FTTH market situation in Middle East identifying areas for improvement but also the obstacles still to overcome to see FTTH markets booming in Middle East. 

Jawad Abbassi

Biography & Abstract:

Biography: Mr. Abbassi is fluent in English in addition to being a native speaker of Arabic. Basic French.
Education:
- BSc in engineering from the American University in Cairo (Egypt – 1993).
- Mr. Abbassi received an academic scholarship to complete his MSc in information systems from the London School of Economics (United Kingdom - 1998).
- Harvard Business School executive education in 2010
Memberships and affiliations:
Member of Jordan’s Engineers Association
Member of The Arab Business Forum for Information and Communication Technology ABFICT. Elected to the board in 2005.
Member of the steering committee for UN ICT Task Force of the "Wireless Internet and the Arab-World" series.
Vice Chairman of Jordan’s information technology association between 2006 and 2008. Elected to the board in 2004 and elected as Vice Chairman in 2006.
Chosen for membership in the Young Arab Leaders Organization.
Bishop’s school (Amman), AUC (Cairo) and LSE (London) Alumni associations

Abstract: A discussion of the regional broadband markets, the regulatory context as well as dynamics of technologies competing (WiMAX, copper, 3G and ftth).

Gary O'Neal

Biography: Mr. O'Neal has over thirty years of telecommunications experience and is currently engaged as President and Chief Technology Officer, Teralight, Ltd., Dubai, UAE. An established entrepreneur, Mr. O’Neal has held many positions as CEO or President and/or Chief Technology Officer with numerous start-ups and a public company. He has had a successful track record in leading numerous companies through the startup cycle to either acquisition or Initial Public Offering. He founded and led Iris Broadband, Inc., a successful infrastructure development and telecom and IT services provider. He was previously Executive Director, Special Projects for a facilities-based telecommunications carrier and formerly Executive Director of the National Advanced Transportation Laboratory affiliated with the University Of New Orleans College Of Engineering focused on next generation Telematics. His experience also involves telecommunications projects for cellular, microwave, satellite, high frequency telecommunications, fiber optics in all parts and under all conditions throughout the world. He has been member of the IEEE and several of its societies, including Standards Association, Communications Society, Laser and Electro-Optics Society, and others. Mr. O’Neal is a graduate of East Texas State University; now a part of the Texas A&M system as Texas A&M-Commerce. Mr. O’Neal, Retired in 1995 from the United States Army and was a holder of numerous SCI/SI numerous compartmented clearances.

Gamal Hegazy

Biography: Gamal Hegazy is an active member of the FTTH Council Middle East Group and a Solution Architect with Alcatel-Lucent with responsibilities ranging from network design & architecture, business development,  and marketing for the Africa & Middle East region, focusing on ultra high speed broadband and new innovative service introduction.
A veteran of the ICT industry for the last 15 years, he holds a Master degree in Telecoms & Information Systems from University of Essex UK and a BSc of Electronics from Cairo university.
Gamal has been working as a product planning manager for Nokia Networks North America and a project manager for Huawei Technologies, supervising their Middle East projects.
He has also worked with the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) participating in the introduction of Internet service to Egypt with technical responsibilities ranging from planning to implementation of  ISP setups. 

Dr. Shoichi Hanatani

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Dr. Hanatani is a senior director with Hitachi, Ltd, as well as the Chair of Education & Training Committee, FTTH Council Asia-Pacific since July 2009. He was the first President of FTTH Council Asia-Pacific from October 2004, its foundation to May 2009. 
He joined Central Research Laboratories, Hitachi Ltd., in 1982, after he received M.E. from a department of applied physics at University of Tokyo.
From 1996 to 2001, he stayed in Dallas, TX in U.S.A. to establish an Optical Network R&D center with Hitachi Telecom, USA, Inc. He was the general manager from 1999 to 2001.
In 2001, he was back to the central research laboratory and also served as a research fellow at Division of University Cooperation Relations in University of Tokyo from 2002 to 2004. He moved to the current company in 2004.
He was involved, as a founder member, in an establishment of FTTH Council Asia-Pacific as an international NPO in 2004 and has been serving as the President up to the 4th Annual Conference held in Melbourne May 2009. On July 2009, he initiated a new Committee, Education & Training, and has been serving as the Chair up to date.
And he has been contributing, as a program committee member, to international technical conferences, OFC, AOE, FOE,ACP and ONDM. He was a subcommittee chair of the Technology Program Committee of OFC2009

Abstract: A market study on FTTH deployment in Asia-Pacific and lessons learned through the study are discussed just after a brief introduction of FTTH Council Asia-Pacific. The APAC region is a global market leader with a share of more than 80 % as well as huge potential market due to larger population and the current economic growth in the region. The Council calls it "See The Light".
Market features are that national incumbent telecom operators have been playing a key driver based on their national broadband policies and initiatives and lately some initiatives are developing open access wholesale business models. Lessons learned give us an idea that governments are key to facilitate and accelerate FTTH deployment nationwide.

Saleha Asif

Biography: Saleha Asif is an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company’s Dubai Office. She joined the Firm in May 2005 in McKinsey’s New York Office and split her time between the U.S. and the Middle East before transferring to Dubai in August 2009 to focus on clients in the region.  Saleha focuses primarily on telecom and has also served clients in the social sector, media, high tech and financial services sectors. Recent projects include:
Fiber commercialization for an emerging markets incumbent telco
Commercial support for an emerging markets mobile telecom attacker, including new product design and use of CLM to stimulate revenues
Serving an emerging markets incumbent on B2B Fixed Data Strategy including design and commercialization support for high speed broadband products and services
Business unit strategy for emerging markets mobile telecom operator
Online sales and distribution channel strategy for large financial services client
Prior to joining McKinsey, Saleha was with PepsiCo in Corporate Strategy and Business Development and focused her attention on consumer insights and innovation trends. She has also served as Vice President and Head of Corporate Banking for Bank of America in Islamabad,. Saleha holds an M.B.A. in Information Strategy & Economics from the Wharton School, and a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from the University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan. 

Albert Grooten

Biography: Albert is currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the FTTH Council Europe. He is the Director Technology FTTH for the Amsterdam-based optical fiber technology and network solutions specialist Draka Communications.
Albert worked for Draka in R&D and was subsequently International Product manager for Optical Fiber Cables. After a period as Quality Assurance Manager, he worked in the Telecom Sales department as Key Account Manager with local telecoms company KPN. He was Managing Director of NetShare Nederland BV and Sales Director FTTH – projects.
Albert Grooten holds a MS degree in Materials Engineering of Delft Technical University. 

Bruno Van Den Bossche

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Bruno Van Den Bossche graduated as a Master in Computer Science at Ghent University in 2004. He joined the Department of Information Technology at Ghent University as a PhD student where his research included scalable software architectures, distributed software and the automatic optimal distribution of component based software applications. His research was published in over 20 publications in journals and conferences proceedings. In October 2009 he obtained a PhD in computer science. He joined Comsof, a spinoff company from the Department of Information Technology at Ghent University, where he works on the design and development of FiberPlanIT, Comsof's platform to automatically design and optimize Fiber to the Home networks based on GIS data. Bruno cooperated in several consultancy projects where FTTH Business cases were build based on the accurate cost estimations that were derived using the FiberPlanIT software platform.

Abstract: The FTTH business case: comparing the impact of important parameters and illustrating how to determine accurate values for each case individually
-When building an FTTH business case, the most important parameters are geographical parameters (home density, MDU sizes and presence, …), technological parameters, unit price parameters and revenue parameters. Often general assumptions are made about the values to use in a business case.
-However, every area is different and impact of the different parameters on the end result of a business case can be very high. We will show how to derive accurate estimates for some of these parameters based on a GIS and geomarketing model.
-Amongst other things you will see
*how average cost per home passed can differ by more than a factor 3 between different areas to deploy
*how return on investment can be doubled by selecting the right area to deploy FTTH (by using Geomarketing data)
*the impact on investment cost between technology choices (PON vs. PtP)

Ajay Saini

Biography & Abstract

Biography: Ajay Saini is the Product Marketing Manager for Broadband Access at Ericsson. Ajay has worked on wireline solutions in various capacities for 11 years. His past experience includes network design, FTTx consultancy, sales and business development, IP Networks configuration and Network Management System administration. He joined Ericsson in 2001 and is working closely with global market sales, creating Deep Fiber Solutions for major operators in partnership with solution and sales managers for fixed wireline access. Ajay holds a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from University of Louisiana, Lafayette (USA).

Abstract: Operators understand that the endgame is FTTH as it provides the required flexibility to support all types of bandwidth intensive and delay sensitive applications that can enable key differentiators to attract new customers, reduce churn and make them successful in an extremely competitive Telecom market. However, the challenge is to come up with a business case that can justify the required investments to rollout an FTTH network.
This presentation examines the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an FTTH network and explains both the challenges and opportunities that an FTTH network can provide. The three components in TCO are Capital Expenses (Capex), Operational Expenses (Opex) and Revenues. It is well known that Passive networks, including Civil Works, have the biggest impact on Capex. This session suggests ways to potentially reduce Capex, for example, innovative air blown fiber techniques. An  FTTH network requires less maintenance compared to a Copper network, but any new deployment implies training of an operator’s workforce.  If it’s not designed and implemented properly, this can actually result in a very high initial Opex. Methods like fast click provisioning that can potentially reduce Opex are presented. For Revenues, we need to remind ourselves that Telecom is a supply driven market rather than demand driven. This means that initially we should expect uncertainty about a consumer’s willingness to pay a premium for getting more bandwidth. But if consumers can be provided better quality of experience over an FTTH network by offering attractive services and devices that demand high speed network infrastructure, people will become more willing to pay a higher price than for any best effort Internet or low quality of service applications. To achieve optimal revenues, a detailed market study is important. In some segments cherry picking by attracting premium customers is a better alternative. In the initial phase, cherry picking can work, but ultimately take-up rate will have a huge impact on the business case.