The 6th in a row regional conference on electronic communications, Telecom Arena 2010, took place on March 1, 2010 in the Westin Hotel, in Zagreb. One of the topics of the program was the direction where telecom market is heading to, and what is necessary for it to be a driving force for economic development and development of digital society, directed to the responsible operations and sustainable development. The conference was attended by the representatives of telecom industry from Croatia and other countries in the region.

Especially interesting were discussions on regulatory EU frame in the next period, EU plans by 2015 concerning the digital society development, changes in Croatian telecom market, as well as plans for the years 2010 and 2011. These subjects were discussed by high representatives of the Croatian Agency for Post and Electronic Media, The Central Government Office for e-Croatia and of several operators.

The professional part of the conference dealt with issues on LTE introduction, i.e. the fourth generation of mobile telephony. The presentation and participation in the panel discussion by Milan Živković, the director for strategy, marketing and business development, made the appearance of Ericsson Nikola Tesla a distinguished one. He presented and explained the need for LTE technology from the end user point of view. Also, he pointed out the end user wishes and the new role of operators, as well as the need for new business models.  Needs for frequency ranges and cost efficiency in using possible range segments, as well as the need for investments depending on the frequency range were mentioned too. He also draw attention to economic and technological advantages of LTE technology, as the more efficient one, which enables the considerably larger capacities and transmission rates. Ericsson leading position in current LTE implementations was pointed out too.

Gordana Kovačević, the president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, participated in the traditional panel discussion among presidents and management board members from the companies operating in ICT sector. The panel discussion topic was the "Sustainable and responsible sector - how ICT can assist in the society development and at the same time protect the environment?". Our president pointed out the role of ICT sector in a society development, the advantages of ICT industry, as the driver for the development of the whole industry and the society, its role in competence  development, more efficient operations, and communications within a business sector with government institutions and users with administration bodies. The company president stressed the need for further development of fixed and mobile infrastructure to access the broadband Internet, which is considered a backbone for new services. The reform in the society and government institutions shall be simultaneously implemented with informatization of large infrastructure systems. Also the top grade large project management is of utmost importance. Croatia shall choose its priority sectors and activities, and ICT industry shall, at any rate, be among them, but not as a box moving branch office for information equipment and software import, but as an industry with research and development and other professional centers, which produce knowledge for the global market. The Company president also remind us all on the minor direct influence by ICT to environment, since it is fact that the implementation of ICT solutions in other levels, may considerably, reduce the CO emission, as some estimations have it,  even by one third. 

 
Besides all the above mentioned, the considerable attention was paid to the digital TV and digital marketing. Also, a short survey of events at the recently closed meeting „Mobile World Congress 2010“ in  Barcelona, was given.

Ericsson Nikola Tesla Company Communications