With a focus on Internet accessibility the Rural Broadband Summit 2012 will provide a vital opportunity to hear from exciting emerging players in the industry. It also provides the perfect platform for targeted discussion and thought-provoking analysis of key issues, such as the challenges of making the economics of broadband delivery work for business and achieving ROI.

Richard Jones, Partner at Ventura Team LLP, is set to chair the summit. He says: “The Rural Broadband Summit is incredibly important as an event as it deals with the unserved and under-served parts of the market – the parts that need attention to avoid the creation of digital divides and to support the rural economies.”

Unique presentations from leading analysts at the summit will address the topic of navigating the regulation in different markets as well as other key areas in the broadband space. A critical question to be debated on the day is the technology choices for rural broadband as well as rural network sharing, achieving return on investment from rural broadband network coverage and key trends around broadband connectivity in Africa.

Acting Chairman, CEO and Head of Telecommunications Technologies Unit of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Lebanon, Imad Y. Hoballah, PhD, will speak on working towards an efficient ICT sector policy (e-governance, e-commerce, e-health, e-education) to serve remote areas. Hoballah’s presentation will touch on matters such as the government’s role in achieving broadband connectivity for remote areas, licensing obligations, development of local content and applications and technology innovations utilised in fast rural broadband deployment.

Hoballah says: “The TRA of Lebanon is pleased to participate in the Rural Broadband Summit – 2012. As a speaker at this world-class event, I will highlight the importance of the synergy among all stakeholders to serve rural areas through an efficient ICT sector policy. Immense value will be delivered to the rural regions when technology innovations – like cloud services – are coupled with local content and applications and supported by appropriate regulations and policies. I am looking forward to meeting industry leaders and stakeholders to discuss and exchange ideas and thoughts about how ICT drives social and economical growth in the MEA region.”

Hoballah is also President of the Arab Regulators’ Network (AREGNET), Vice Chairman of the Arab Spectrum Management Group (ASMG) and Vice President of the Arab Infrastructure Regulators Forum (AIRF).

Leading network access specialist, The Kenton Group, is officially sponsoring the Rural Broadband Summit, with its Managing Director John Larkin commenting: “Broadband MEA is a fantastic event as it brings key players together to address the critical issues surrounding rural broadband in the MEA region. It raises the question of what technology choices are available for rural broadband and tackles how to achieve them.”

John Larkin will also be giving a presentation at the summit on unleashing the potential of copper networks for rural broadband which will include an overview of defining the problem, the market potential, the challenges faced and the solutions that can cost effectively meet demand.

Also speaking on the day is Jaume Salvat, CEO of Andorra Telecom. Salvat, who says: “I’m looking forward to sharing our experiences at Broadband MEA and discussing our ideas about the deployment of broadband infrastructures in rural areas. I’ll also be exploring how to ensure true broadband services to the inhabitants and businesses in those areas, allowing the same opportunities and the right economic development.”

Jayhun Mollazade, CEO at AzQtel LLC, says: “As a wireless network operator in Azerbaijan we’ve achieved considerable success in the provision of broadband Internet access services. Broadband MEA 2012 will be a great opportunity for different companies to showcase the progress that they have made in the broadband industry.”

A host of high level government and industry executives will speak at the summit including Nima PourNejatian, Chief Technology Officer at MobinNet Telecom Co. (MTC); Ntokozo Khumalo, African Business Producer at ETV and Labib Matta, Senior Partner at Next Gen Advisory Group.

The conference and industry leading exhibition will take place from 25 — 27 March at The Westin Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina, Dubai, UAE. To view the full Broadband MEA programme or to register for the event or the Rural Broadband Summit, please visit http://mea.broadbandworldforum.com/register/ or call +44 (0) 20 7017 5506.

The Product Revenue for the company stood at Rs. 1187.29 mln (USD 23.28 mln) contributing to 89.36 % of the consolidated revenue. The company posted a Product EBITDA of Rs 439.76 mln (USD 8.02 mln) while the Consolidated EBITDA for the period stood at Rs. 443.83 mln (USD 8.70 mln) as compared to Rs. 386.63 mln (USD 7.58 mln) in Q3 of FY 2011.

Commenting on the business, Subash Menon, Founder Chairman, Managing Director and CEO, said, “We are extremely happy that the results for this quarter have turned out to be as promising as expected. We continue to have a good market share in Business Optimization space and the increasing uptake for our industry leading Revenue Operations Center (ROC®) and Managed Services offering is proof of the same. Our Product EBITDA stood at Rs. Rs 439.76 mln (USD 8.02 mln) and we expect this to grow in the coming quarter”.

EBITDA Grows 15% sequentially to Rs. 444 mln

• Net Profit (before exceptional items) at Rs. 285.38 mln up from Rs. 240.41 mln in FY11 Q3
• Product revenue contributes 89.36% to the total revenue
• Product EBITDA improves to 37.04%

Quarter ended 31 December 2011 – Key Highlights

• Net Consolidated Revenue at Rs. 1328.69 mln (USD 26.05 mln), up from Rs. 1267.72 mln (USD 24.86 mln) in FY11 Q3
• Net Profit (before exceptional items) at Rs. 285.38 mln (USD 5.60 mln) up from Rs. 240.41 mln (USD 4.71 mln) in FY11 Q3
• Revenue from Products at Rs. 1187.29 mln (USD 23.28 mln)

Comptel’s real-time, scalable and flexible solution will enable Telefónica de Argentina to more easily and efficiently collect and transform more than 90 million network transactions daily into billable records. It will not only address the operator’s need to improve the delivery and charging of advanced fixed services, but also better Telefónica de Argentina’s operational processes and organisational synergies with Comptel Convergent Mediation already deployed at its mobile operator, Movistar Argentina.

A member of the Telefónica Group, Telefónica de Argentina is the largest CSP in Argentina. It has 23 million fixed and mobile subscribers, from consumers to small- to medium-sized businesses to enterprises in the region. The company has more than three million broadband accounts and 25,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable capacity in the country.

Movistar Argentina has been a Comptel customer since 2002. Most recently, it upgraded Comptel Convergent Mediation in order to take advantage of the platform’s enhanced performance and scalability. Comptel enabled Telefónica de Argentina’s mobile operator to manage more than 600 million transactions daily, and deploy and charge for advanced mobile services with speed and ease.

Comptel Convergent Mediation, which will be implemented by Comptel at Telefónica de Argentina, offers an intelligent approach to mediation and charging by hiding network complexity and linking services and subscriber and payment types. Its vendor-independent components will seamlessly integrate with the CSP’s legacy BSS/OSS and CRM systems, as well as extend to next-generation environments and services.

Stratecast’s evaluation criteria for the award included “Uniqueness of Strategy”, “Improves Market Position” and “Leverages Competitive Intelligence”. DigitalRoute emerged with the highest ranking among the evaluated vendors.

Founded in 2000, DigitalRoute has evolved from a pure-play billing mediation supplier to a real-time data collection, aggregation, and correlation provider for any group of business functions. DigitalRoute refers to this approach as “Horizontal Mediation”.

Together with partner solutions, MediationZone from DigitalRoute has been deployed by 240 communication service providers (CSPs) around the world. Its revenue has grown sharply, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25% between 2007 and 2010, during a global recession.

According to Stratecast’s research, DigitalRoute is one of very few companies in the mediation space, or any other part of the end-to-end CSP billing space, to effectively utilize an OEM partner strategy. Stratecast also highlights the fact that DigitalRoute has focused on mediation since its inception and even its recent expansion into policy control is built around its strength in mediation. This strategy is a key ingredient in the innovation process at DigitalRoute, as according to Stratecast’s research it results in “deeper insight into the longer-term needs of the marketplace from direct interaction not only through its customers but also from its OEM partners.”

The ROC Fraud Management solution version 7.4 is the latest version of Subex’s industry leading product and is setting the industry benchmark through its systematic approach to implementing in-line rules to support proactive prevention of fraud. The product also goes a step further in minimizing costs as well as anxiety of customers, as well as protecting operators from fraudulent access.

“Reflecting the intensity of competition and innovation across the mobile ecosystem, we saw a record 600 entries and an exceptionally high quality field of contenders vying for this year’s Global Mobile Awards,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “It is a significant achievement to have made the shortlist, and our warmest congratulations go to all the nominees announced today. We look forward to the unveiling of the winners at the Mobile World Congress next month.”

Sudeesh Yezhuvath, Chief Operating Offer, Subex commented, “We are pleased that our industry leading ROC Fraud Management solution version 7.4 has been shortlisted for the Global Mobile Awards 2012. This nomination is testament of our product superiority and of our core value of continuous innovation to keep up with the changing needs of the industry. Subex delivers solutions which have the ability to scale in line with our customers’ needs; scalability and excellent fraud protection are two reasons why the world’s most successful communication service providers choose Subex’s ROC Fraud Management solution.”

List of nominees and awards categories can be found at http://www.globalmobileawards.com/awards2012/Nominees.php.

Encompassing:
- Mobile Payments & Mobile Wallets
- NFC Technologies
- Mobile Money Transfer & Mobile Remittance
- Mobile Banking
- Banking the Unbanked & Microfinance Services

Winning Strategies to Profit from Innovative & Sustainable Mobile Payments Services

Conference: 19-20 April 2012
Hong Kong

Corporate Sponsor:

Mobile Payments & NFC World Summit 2012 will draw together highly-regarded speakers representing the mobile network operators, banks, money transfer providers, mobile transfer networks, mWallets, retailers, public transit providers, ‘interoperability hubs’, handset manufacturers, technology and equipment providers to share their latest efforts in launching mobile financial services and the key challenges facing them.

The summit will further provide tips on how to analyse your customers’ behaviour to help in your planning of your winning strategies to deploy Mobile Payments services. The most exciting session will be the panel discussion fully represented by the stakeholders of the ecosystem to discuss Strategic Partnership in providing Innovative and Sustainable Mobile Payments services.

The following Current and Cutting Edge Issues will be addressed in depth with necessary Real World Case Studies:
• Regulatory Issues & Collaborating with the Regulatory Authorities
• Future Trends of Mobile Proximity Payments
• Retail Payment Development Updates – Hong Kong Case Study
• New Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Banks in Delivering M-Payments
• For Banks – How to Successfully Align Financial Services with NFC and Mobile Payments Systems?
• Opportunities for Increasing Sales Volume for Merchants/Retailers in Deploying M-Payments
• Public Transit Provider’s Perspectives in Deploying Mobile Payments
• Innovative Mobile Payments Strategies to Capture New Market
• Innovation in mPayments: What’s Hot?
• Additional Revenue Generating Channels through Deployment of M-Payments
• Introducing G2C Initiatives
• Mobile Collections Service
• Critical Success Factors in Deploying Mobile Payment Services? – From Each Stakeholder’s Point of View
• Benefits and Business Case Drivers for Each Stakeholder
• Comparisons – Operator-Centric, Bank-Centric, 3rd Party Centric or Collaboration
• Profitable and Sustainable Business Models
• International Mobile Money Transfer and Remittance Market
• Addressing Issues of Standardization and Interoperability
• Banking the ‘Unbanked’ – How to Capture the Mass Market?
• Strategizing Your Mobile Payments Plan through Analysis of Consumer Behaviour
• Effective & Sustainable Strategies to Encourage Active Consumer’s Usage of Mobile Payments
• Accessing Mobile Users Cost Effectively & Securely
• New Innovative Delivery Platforms for Mobile Payments Services
• The Potentials of Offering Micro-Finance Services in Developed Countries
• Innovation & Sustainability in Offering Mobile Payments Services
• Building A Robust and Sustainable NFC Infrastructure
• Handset Technology Development Updates
• Security Issues – How to Build and Keep Customer Trust in Mobile Payments?
• Management Issues Concerning Implementation and Cost Considerations

A Line-Up of Highly-Regarded Expert Speakers Representing Mobile Payments Ecosystem from:
• Russell Zimmerman, Executive Director, Australian Retailers Association, Australia
• Frederick M. Faustino, Head, Mobile Banking Channel, Bank of Philippines Islands, Philippines
• Frédéric Schepens, Executive Vice President, Strategic Business Development, BICS, Belgium
• Jiffy Yang, Senior Business Development Director, China Mobile Labs, China
• Tonet Santana, Vice President-Treasury and Trade Solutions, Asia Pacific, Global Transaction Services, Citibank, Hong Kong
• Goulven Bescond, Product Director Mobile Money, eServGlobal, France
• Paolo J. Baltao, President, G-Xchange, Inc., Philippines
• Delwar Hossain Azad, Head, Financial Services, Grameenphone, Bangladesh
• Shu-pui Li, Head of Financial Infrastructure Development Division, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong
• Silvester Prakasam, Director (Fare Systems), Land Transport Authority, Singapore
• Jarkko Sevanto, Senior Manager, NFC Business Development, Nokia, Finland
• Gary Singh, MD/General Manager, Nokia Mobile Payment Services, India
• Sebastien Taveau, Astronomer/Principal, Mobile Ecosystems Integration, Paypal, USA
• Tom Wills, Managing Director, Secure Strategies, USA
• Soo-il Kim, Head of Commerce Department, SK Telecom, Korea
• Dan Armstrong, Consultant-Mobile Banking & Payments, Rabobank International, The Netherlands
• Lalit Sinha, General Manager, Alternate Delivery Channels & New Initiative Department, Union Bank of India, India
• Anuj Khanna, Asia Pacific Regional Head, Products and Business Development, Mobile Products, Western Union
• And many more…

For more details of the summit, please visit event website or contact Phyllis Goh of Symphony Global at email: phyllis.goh@symphonyglobal.com

Gartner evaluated CM contact center business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers on their CM contact center BPO capabilities in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. The scope of services evaluated included the management of service provider employees to the delivery of CM contact center BPO services and the management of the customer experience.

“Convergys is honored to be recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant as a global leader in customer management BPO services,” said Andrea Ayers, President and COO of Convergys’ Customer Management business. “We take great pride in the commitment of our employees and agents worldwide to consistently deliver superior customer service experiences for our clients and their customers no matter where they may be located.”

According to Gartner, Leaders in worldwide CM contact center BPO services demonstrate a market-defining vision and the ability to execute against that vision, a superior market share, and solid client references for CM contact center BPO service, worldwide, including a cross-section of vertical industries. Leaders invest in innovative service offerings, business/pricing models and service delivery models. They have a superior understanding of client needs and of current market conditions, and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the CM contact center BPO market across multiple regions worldwide. Providers in this quadrant generally have strong global or regional service delivery operations and deep technology to leverage and deliver above-average customer experience.

As a single-source provider of agent-assisted, self-service, and proactive care, Convergys combines agent services, innovative technology, and analytics to optimize the customer experience and strengthen customer relationships. Through customer care outsourcing and services to in-house contact centers, Convergys is helping clients build more effective relationships with their customers driving increased revenues and cost savings.

Under the terms of the contract, Orcon users will locally access and operate the i-conX v.10 billing software via a remotely hosted, secure, fully web-based solution. File importation, rates management, rating tasks and data storage are hosted offsite, providing for end-to-end resilience and a lean and rapidly-enabled deployment model backed by full security and disaster recovery provisions.

The deal was announced at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) 2012, Hawaii, since 1977 the premier annual telecommunications event spanning the Pacific region.

Orcon, New Zealand’s fastest growing telecommunications company, delivers an innovative mix of voice and internet services domestically across New Zealand, together with a strong and growing wholesale business profile in the international market. i-conX’s solution will process the interconnect billing requirements for the full scope of voice and data products and services, in both domestic and international arenas.

Xtract Oy is a Finnish software company specialising in advanced analytics, for a total consideration of EUR 3.1 million (enterprise value). Xtract has about 20 customers including telecom operators AVEA in Turkey, DNA in Finland, Megafon in Russia and TeliaSonera in Finland as well as insurance company If, retail and media companies. Xtract’s net sales were EUR 2.4 million in 2011. Xtract has 27 highly skilled employees which are mainly based in Espoo, Finland.

The transaction is estimated to close in mid-February 2012 from which time onwards Xtract Group will be consolidated into Comptel Group financials. The acquisition is financed through Comptel Corporation’s liquid assets. The main selling shareholders are private equity funds managed by Creandum, Innovations Kapital and Verdane.

The theme of this summit is ‘Winning Strategies to Profit from Innovative & Sustainable Mobile Payments Services’.
Singapore (January 17, 2012) / — Full representation of the stakeholders will be sharing case studies and their vital views on how to develop and deploy innovative and sustainable mobile payments services at Mobile Payments & NFC World Summit 2012 which will be held from 19 to 20 April 2012 in Hong Kong.

These are the full representation of the stakeholders at the summit :
Mobile Operators : China Mobile Labs, G-Xchange, Grameenphone & SK Telecom
Banks: Bank of Philippines Island, Citibank, Rabobank International & Union Bank of India
Payment Service Providers : Paypal & Western Union
Retailers – Australian Retailers Association
Govt & Public Transit Providers – Hong Kong Monetary Authority & Land Transport Authority of Singapore
Technology and Payment Platform Providers : BICS, eServGlobal & Nokia Mobile Payments Services
Handset Manufacturers – Nokia
The following key issues will be addressed in depth with necessary Real World Case Studies:
– Regulatory Issues & Collaborating with the Regulatory Authorities
– Future Trends of Mobile Proximity Payments
– Retail Payment Development Updates – Hong Kong Case Study
– New Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Banks in Delivering M-Payments
– For Banks – How to Successfully Align Financial Services with NFC and Mobile Payments Systems?
– Opportunities for Increasing Sales Volume for Merchants/Retailers in Deploying M-Payments
– Public Transit Provider’s Perspectives in Deploying Mobile Payments
– Innovative Mobile Payments Strategies to Capture New Market
– Innovation in mPayments: What’s Hot?
– Additional Revenue Generating Channels through Deployment of M-Payments
– Introducing G2C Initiatives
– Mobile Collections Service
– Critical Success Factors in Deploying Mobile Payment Services? – From Each Stakeholder’s Point of View
– Benefits and Business Case Drivers for Each Stakeholder
– Comparisons – Operator-Centric, Bank-Centric, 3rd Party Centric or Collaboration
– Profitable and Sustainable Business Models
– International Mobile Money Transfer and Remittance Market
– Addressing Issues of Standardization and Interoperability
– Banking the ‘Unbanked’ – How to Capture the Mass Market?
– Strategizing Your Mobile Payments Plan through Analysis of Consumer Behaviour
– Effective & Sustainable Strategies to Encourage Active Consumer’s Usage of Mobile Payments
– Accessing Mobile Users Cost Effectively & Securely
– New Innovative Delivery Platforms for Mobile Payments Services
– The Potentials of Offering Micro-Finance Services in Developed Countries
– Innovation & Sustainability in Offering Mobile Payments Services
– Building A Robust and Sustainable NFC Infrastructure
– Handset Technology Development Updates
– Security Issues – How to Build and Keep Customer Trust in Mobile Payments?
– Management Issues Concerning Implementation and Cost Considerations

Companies/organisations representing the Mobile Payments Ecosystem will be speaking at this conference :
– Russell Zimmerman, Executive Director, Australian Retailers Association, Australia
– Frederick M. Faustino, Head, Mobile Banking Channel, Bank of Philippines Islands, Philippines
– Frédéric Schepens, Executive Vice President, Strategic Business Development, BICS, Belgium
– Jiffy Yang, Senior Business Development Director, China Mobile Labs, China
– Tonet Santana, Vice President-Treasury and Trade Solutions, Asia Pacific, Global Transaction Services, Citibank, Hong Kong
– Goulven Bescond, Product Director Mobile Money, eServGlobal, France
– Paolo J. Baltao, President, G-Xchange, Inc., Philippines
– Delwar Hossain Azad, Head, Financial Services, Grameenphone, Bangladesh
– Shu-pui Li, Head of Financial Infrastructure Development Division, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong
– Silvester Prakasam, Director (Fare Systems), Land Transport Authority, Singapore
– Jarkko Sevanto, Senior Manager, NFC Business Development, Nokia, Finland
– Gary Singh, MD/General Manager, Nokia Mobile Payment Services, India
– Sebastien Taveau, Astronomer/Principal, Mobile Ecosystems Integration, Paypal, USA
– Tom Wills, Managing Director, Secure Strategies, USA
– Yu-Shik Kim, VP, Head of Global Partnership, SK Telecom, Korea (tbc)
– Dan Armstrong, Consultant-Mobile Banking & Payments, Rabobank International, The Netherlands
– Lalit Sinha, General Manager, Alternate Delivery Channels & New Initiative Department, Union Bank of India, India
– Anuj Khanna, Asia Pacific Regional Head, Products and Business Development, Mobile Products, Western Union

The conference website is : http://www.symphonyglobal.com/index.php/event/page/mobile_payments_nfc_world_summit_2012/overview

Symphony Global is a business media and consulting company that aims to provide the best networking platforms for global business connections.

All our events are research-driven with direct contacts with major industry stakeholders to ensure that they meet their needs and keep up to the industry trends and developments. SG Conferences offer you an unrivalled opportunity to network with your peers within your areas of business and ultimately develop the best business partnership for future business expansion. Our workshops and masterclasses provide an informative and interactive forum for developing latest techniques and skills.

Take advantage of SG services and products to keep up-to-date with the latest developments within your industry.