The Small-Sized and the Poor are Welcome
Alexander Boreyko
Vedomosti, October 13, 2003

GENEVA - The fourth international telecommunication exhibition Telecom World 2003 that is being held once in four years by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) opened yesterday. The long-lasting decline in the high-tech industry could not but influence the scope of the event: it has nothing in common with the vanity fair staged on the bank of Geneva lake four years ago at the height of the Dot.com bubble.

The Telecom World is still the flagship specialized telecommunication forum in the world attracting telecommunication ministers and industry-leading CEOs from many countries. But, a number of the largest telecommunication players gave the conference a miss this year, so the organizers focused on smaller-sized IT companies and emerging markets.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was created in 1865 to develop rules of interaction between telecommunication carriers worldwide. At present ITU is a part of UN and has 189 participating countries. ITU Telecom World has been held in Geneva every four years since 1971. This year 915 exhibitors were present compared to over fourteen hundred 1999. The size of booths is 55% less than four years ago. While the previous event had 175,000 visitors, this year the organizers are expecting 65,000 - 80,000 people.

This year several biggest names in the industry were notable by their absence - the Finnish Nokia, the Swedish Ericsson, the French Alcatel and the German Siemens. But ITU executives are not very much disappointed by their refusal to participate in the Telecom World.

"The absence of some big European companies reflects drastic changes in the sector, - Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU). - These companies no longer determine the future of technologies. The cutting-edge technologies are being developed by small and medium sized companies ". Such companies are the "fair chunk" among the fair participants being much relied upon by the organizers. Over half of the ITU Telecom World 2003 exhibitors are first-timers.

ITU managers also stake on developing countries from which, in their opinion, the recovery of the sector starts. "These countries need simple base equipment and base communication services", - says the Secretary-General of ITU. "While developed countries measure telecommunication growth in percents per year, developing countries mark this growth in two-digit and three-digit figures ", - shares this opinion Mr. Hamadoun Toure, Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau of ITU.

ITU officials are especially glad to have known that last year mobile users outnumbered fixed subscribers. In late 2002 there were 1.55 billion mobile handset users worldwide, while only 1.129 billion people used fixed-line communications. About 46% cell phone users live in developing countries. They are the main source of growth.

Our country has greatly contributed to the global mobility. In his speech Mr. Toure pointed out that only in August 2003 the growth of mobile users in Russia was 1.6 million users, a considerable rise, in his opinion. The first deputy Communication Minister Boris Antonuk says that the number of mobile subscribers in Russia will outnumber PSTN users next year.

The Russian presence in Geneva is quite remarkable. Thirty-six Russian companies participate in the trade fair - less than the number of exhibitors from Switzerland, USA or France, but greater than that from Japan, Korea or Germany. To tell the truth, the majority of the Russian exhibitors, 31 companies, share one collective stand in the Russian pavilion. Participants that have separate exhibition places are CBOSS - a developer of billing systems for mobile communications, the satellite operator "Gazkom", the "Morion" factory, the Russian Management Systems Agency and the International Communication Company (ICC).

According to Nikolay Sevastianov, General Director of "Gazkom", the company participates in the fair for the third time. The first two times the company was exhibited on the collective stand, but now "Gazkom" thinks that a separate booth would be more efficient. Today is the Russian day at the exhibition. Leonid Reiman, the Minister of Communications was to offer an official opening address in the Russian pavilion and speak at the investment forum. But the Minister's plans changed and now his participation in the events will be remote through a teleconference from the conference room in the Ministry of Communications.
Source: (vedomosti.ru), 13.10.2003