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The seventh CEO Conclave started with a huge thump this time in India's very own city of Nawabs-Hyderabad. After last year's very successful conclave in Nepal, this year again saw many of the big names in the telecom industry of India as well as the SAARC region. The grandeur of Hyderabad in the even grander Ramoji Film City, the biggest of its kind in entire Asia, was perhaps overshadowed by the heated discussions that went on for two days, giving everybody an opportunity to learn from the in-exhaustible panel.

In this boiling market with high attrition and vitality, the CEO Conclave was quite buoyant from the knowledge that the present industry has better business models for the future. The telecom industry, at least in India is growing at a very high pace, disregarding the repression. Some eminent speakers talked about the 'recession.' As the telecom industry in India is about to reach a user base of 350 million, and as other SAARC nations are doing equally well, Voice&Data explores the dimensions of the telecom world through Telecom 2.0. Pradeep Gupta, chairman and managing director, Cybermedia cordially welcomed everybody to mark the beginning of the much awaited conference, that saw some of the biggest industry prospects. Gupta talked about the rural space of telecom. He said, “What comes next to the present growth is that telecom is moving into the rural areas, the bottom of the pyramid. And as telecom has a huge impact on the livelihood of the people, so a great number of things are being done in that area, like lowering the costs. Thanks to the regulators, the tariff offered in the rural areas is very effective.”

Inaugural address by chief guest Nripendra Misra, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

After the welcome address the stage was set for the first speaker of the day, Nirpendra Misra, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. In his inaugural address he put forward perhaps the most important thing that should be done to keep the telecom industry alive and functional. He talked of his dream, his “Dream of a Connected SAARC.” According to him, “The entire SAARC nation should work closely and service providers should have a level of cooperation with each other. Most of the SAARC nations have a huge rural population and a difficult geographical terrain. My other worry is NGN. If all of us together do not have a strategized approach towards it, we will end up spending more than required.”

The STAC panel focused on whether SAARC nations should have their say in international forums

The keynote speaker, Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director, BSNL talked on “What is stopping broadband?” in the SAARC region and how could the present day structure be improved. He said, “The most important thing is the content provided by the service providers. Content is the main growth driver today. So content should also be in regional languages as it would help in increasing the rural penetration, which is still lacking. IPTV, which has not yet rolled out in the market, is also slowing down the broadband growth. Apart from all these the major challenge faced is lack of power supply in remote area, due to which many telephone exchanges do not work.”

Keynote address by Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL

After the inaugural keynote speakers the podium was handed to our neighbouring SAARC country Pakistan, with a special address made by Sultan Ul Afreen, chairman, Telecard. He put forward some of the important and pertinent views on the ever-growing communication industry. Afreen talked on how WiMax could bring down the digital divide. “The WiMax forum wants to offer the same operations as the GSM network provides, so that there is more flexibility. How important is high speed? High speed is perhaps for the higher end customers who use devices like the Blackberry, and not so applicable to the common man. We should look into how to bring down the digital divide and also look into optimization of resources.”

Elango T, CEO, AP Circle, Bharti Airtel receiving the 'Most Innovative Service Provider' in India award from TR Dua, senior director, COAI	Abdul Mannan Khan, chairman, Mango Teleservices receiving the 'Most Innovative Service Provider' in Bangladesh award on behalf of Grameenphone from Sukanta Dey, president, TTSL
Saman Haturusinghe, product manager (broadband), Mobitel, receiving the 'Most Innovative Service Provider' in Sri Lanka award on behalf of Dialog Telecom from Sandeep Mathur, president, corporate affairs, Tata Communications	Anand Raj Khanal, director, Nepal Telecommunications Authority receiving the award on behalf of Spice Nepal for the 'Most Innovative Service Provider' in Nepal from NK Goyal, chairman, TEMA
Syed Asif Kamal, general manager, project and technology, Universal Service Fund, Pakistan receiving the 'Most Innovative Service Provider' in Pakistan award on behalf of U fone from Brajesh Jain, CEO, Spectranet	Nizam Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, chief project coordinator, Dhaka Telephone receiving the 'Mobile Operator with the Most Consumer Pull' in Bangladesh award on behalf of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom from Mohd Arif, VP, Reliance Communications

Another special address was by Elango T, CEO, Bharti Airtel. He spoke on something that was very evident and a matter of concern in the present times, 'survival during recession.' Elango said, “In the last sixty years there has been eight reported recessions. The credit squeeze is occuring more and more in the SAARC countries. During this period customers cut down on expenses causing a fall in our top line. So it is important to invest in people and look into incentive programmes.”

STAC CEO Roundtable
'The Voice of SAARC' was the theme of the Saarc Telecom Advisory Council (STAC) roundtable, where the panel discussion led to various topics and projects that could be undertaken by the telecom industry. The panel consisted of stalwarts like Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL; Navaid Khan, president, Spice Communications; Sukanta Dey, emerging business president, TTSL; Anand Raj Khannal, director, Nepal Telecom Authority; Sanjeev Chanchodia, CEO, BPL Mobile; Sultan Ul Afreen, chairman, Telecard; Ahmed Nadeem Syed, director, Interconnect; Mohammed Nasih, CEO, Telecom Authority of Maldives; Elango T, CEO, Bharti Airtel; Bobby Mitra, managing director, Texas Instruments; V Ravishankar, CEO, Tata Communications; Fida Haq, COO, Mango Teleservices; Abraham Garrison Smith, CEO, Wataniya Telecom; Brajesh Jain, CEO, Spectranet. The moderator for the entire event was none other than Vikram Tiwathia, former CIO of CII, who did a very good job of helping the roundtable stick to pertinent points.