WCA March 2010

news

The inaugural Fibre-to-the-Home Middle East conference, held in Amman on 10 th and 11 th November 2009, was reported to be a great success. The two-day conference was held under the patronage of the Jordanian minister of ICT, His Excellency Eng Basem Al Rousan, who made the opening speech, participated in a press conference and toured the exhibition hall. Dr Mashour Abu Daka, minister of telecommunications and IT in Palestine, gave a keynote speech, unveiling statistics that show the growing demand in high-speed Internet. The conference programme offered a series of high-level presentations covering all important aspects of FTTH networks. This included tech- nical sessions where the latest solutions for FTTH deployment and operation were presented. Case studies from Middle East, Europe and Asia gave insight in the day-to-day operation of FTTH networks and a special workshop discussed the business case for FTTH. Over 260 delegates were gathered in the Amman Grand Hyatt Zara Expo, where 14 exhibitors were presenting leading edge technologies. This is further evidence that interest for Fibre-to-the-Home is growing in the Middle East region. All analysts speaking at the conference con- firmed that there is huge potential for local FTTH take-up, contributing to the region’s sustainable economic growth. Faris Awartani, chair of the FTTH Council Europe Middle East group, declared that the success of this event would encourage the “Middle East group to intensify its efforts to further promote FTTH, with studies of regional market opportunities and better information about FTTH and its benefits to society, the economy and the environment.” The next FTTH Middle East conference will be held in 2010. FTTH Council Europe – Belgium Fax : +32 2503 2277 Email : info@ftthcouncil.eu Website : www.ftthcouncil.eu Inaugural FTTH conference

Charlotte is 58 th IWCS success

The 59 th IWCS conference is scheduled for 7 th to 10 th November 2010, and will be held in Providence, Rhode Island. The call for papers will be issued early in 2010, and exhibition sales are already underway. The show will be back in Charlotte in 2011.

The 2009 (58 th ) International Wire and Cable and Connectivity Conference took place in Charlotte, NC, with nearly 1,100 attendees, 124 exhibitors, nine professional development courses and 108 technical papers. The papers presented included new and emerging technologies in materials, cable design, applications, and connectivity. Delegates from 32 countries and nearly half of the States participated.

International Wire & Cable Symposium – USA Fax : +1 732 389 0991 Website : www.iwcs.org

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2010