The 2nd Albania Forum was completed successfully
Intracom Telecom Albania expresses its gratitude to all speakers and attendees for their participation
Tirana – December 7th, 2010 – A significant large number of high-level representatives from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the European Commission, universities and government officials attended the 2nd Albanian Telecom forum entitled "Albania on the road to Broadband – Leveraging growth opportunities and exploring Albania’s Broadband ecosystem.” The forum was held at the Sheraton Tirana Hotel on Tuesday, December 7th.
Several high-caliber speakers from the government, industry and academia presented their views on the evolving telecom landscape in Albania and worldwide and their opinions were expressed during two associated panel discussions that took place during the forum. Once again, the forum contributed the maximum as an independent platform for local market players to network and share ideas regarding the main developments in next generation network infrastructure and services. All major Albanian mobile and fixed telecom operators, including ISPs, participated along with Albanian institutional entities and foreign speakers from the regional market. It is worth mentioning that one of the Keynote speakers was the President of the Greek Telecom Regulator, Mr. Leonidas Kanellos, who was also recently elected as Vice-President of BEREC, a very important association of EU regulators. Mr. Kanellos expressed his willingness to support AKEP.
During the forum, the Minister for Innovation and ICT, Mr. Genc Pollo commented: "Albania today has a penetration of mobile telephony near 140%, a figure above the EU average. The use of internet has increased significantly and recent estimates indicate about 45% of Internet users." Minister Pollo continued that the awarding of the license for the deployment of a 3G mobile network will undoubtedly serve to increase broadband in Albania and the entry of the fourth operator of mobile telephony will give momentum by increasing competition that will lead to falling prices for the benefit of the consumers.
Minister Pollo also emphasized on several important issues such as the establishment of a National Broadband Network (NBN); the adoption and implementation of a strategy for transition from analogue to digital broadcasting; the proper allocation of the digital dividend and the adoption of spectrum policies in accordance with EU experiences for the development of Broadband. The Minister concluded his speech underlying that the establishment of the Digital Agenda for Albania is part of the strategy of the Government for the coming period. Later, in the panel discussion, the Minister mentioned also that a tender will be announced in the near future for the completion of the National Broadband Network as an enabling infrastructure to meet the goal of Digital Albania in alignment with the EU Digital Agenda target to provide 100% internet coverage by 2013.
The deputy Minister of Education and Sciences, Mr. Halit Shamata, mentioned during his speech that the expansion of broadband is crucial and it will facilitate the access of knowledge for the Albanian youth.
As an offer to Albanian citizens and in the framework of the 2nd Albanian Telecom Forum, INTRACOM TELECOM Albania proudly announced, for the second consecutive year, the award of scholarships for studies at AIT for Albanian citizens. The scholarship program consists of two scholarships on graduate studies in the field of telecommunications and information technologies and 4 summer school scholarships.
The forum was organized by INTRACOM TELECOM Albania S.A., with the scientific support of Athens Information Technology (AIT) and was under the auspices of the Minister of Innovation and Information Communication Technology. The Polytechnic University of Tirana, the Agency of Electronic and Postal Communications (AKEP), the National Agency of Information Society as well as the KKRT supported the forum. This year’s media sponsorships were courtesy of Vizion Plus TV channel, Monitor magazine and PC World magazine.
