23^rd International Conference “Mobile and Wireless Business: Standards and Technologies” involving ETSI, Association of Regional MNO’s and CJSC Modern Telecommunications and organized by the RANS ITT Regional Branch was held in Juan les Pins (France) on October 20-22, 2008. 25 delegates from 5 countries (Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany and Kazakhstan) took part in the Conference.

This Conference is an annual international meeting which was attended by prominent Russian and foreign experts in the area of mobile and wireless communications, among them: representatives of ETSI, 3GPP, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics (MTUCI), Operators (OJSC Center TelCo, Prestige Ltd, KCell), consulting business (DETECON, T-Comm journal), manufacturers of equipment (Kedax Electronics, P3 Solutions) and systems integrators (CJSC ARUSTEL).

During four sessions of the Conference the participants discussed key issues related to standardization of new telecommunication technologies and services in ETSI, regulation of spectrum use, convergence of 3G/NGN networks and services, new 3G/WiMAX network solutions of leading manufacturers, 3G/WiMAX network convergence and its features, competition growth between 3G/WiMAX technologies on the modern market of communication services and their quality management.

Among the speakers were: Dr. Michael Sharp (UK), Vice-President of ETSI, who presented the guidelines and operating results of ETSI in the area of telecommunication technology global standardization; Kevin Flynn (UK), 3GPP marketing expert, made a report on vital issues of introduction of LTE new mobile technology; Igor Minaev from ETSI and Bolat Nurgozhin from KCell dealt with the issues of regulation of operators’ activity and radiofrequency spectrum use for the development of mobile and wireless business in Europe and Kazakhstan.

Taking into account the expansion of mobile and wireless service markets as one of the key drivers of competition, Dr. Julius Golovachev (Germany) from DETECON presented a report on success factors in development and introduction of new innovative products and services in mobile business and use of PLM product life cycle management concept. At this workshop Holger Zwingman (Germany) informed the participants about the achievements of P3 Solutions and STQ Mobile ETSI Working Group in the area of mobile service quality monitoring.

The participation of Russian experts in this Conference made it possible to study the international practice in introducing new communication technologies with respect to economic effect of their introduction in the Russian Federation in future,  to start planning the incorporation of this practice into the curriculum of the Russian leading Telecommunications University (MTUCI), and to commence preparation of the RANS unit for joint meetings of Technical Committees and Working Groups together with ETSI.