Title

The title of this joint conference is “Bridging the ICT divide in Europe”.

Date and venue

On 22 March 2006, BReATH coorganized a one-day broadband workshop in Brussels together with the BREAD project.

This workshop took place during the 6th FP6-IST concertation meeting, in the EC building at Avenue de Beaulieu 33, room 54 in Brussels. You can also check here. Maps and information about hotels, transport and tourism can be found here.

Objectives

The objective of this workshop was to identify ways to accelerate the use of ICT to aid economic development of disadvantaged regions and to highlight disruptive approaches that could circumvent the barriers. The status, trends and market readiness for the technology, the exploitation routes and the conditions for successful exploitation rather than the technical detail of such approaches were discussed. A number of centres of high technology exist in NMS and research networks have been constructed to serve the interests of research communities and in some cases governments, but how will results break through to operational services that will serve the wider community and impact economic development? Speakers were asked to say how their approaches will break down the ICT divide.

Agenda

The agenda for this event is shown below:

9h00 - 9h10     Introduction

Session 1    Technologies to reduce the digital divide

09:10 - 09:35   The role of wireline access technologies to bridge the digital divide
– Peter Vetter, Alcatel, Belgium (MUSE)

09:35 - 10:00   PON solutions for Municipal Service Needs
– Sorin Cohn, Terawave Communications, United Kingdom

10:00 - 10:20   Using ubiquitous powerline infrastructure for providing broadband access to bridge the ICT divide
– Sathya Rao, Telscom, Switzerland (POWERNET)

10:20 - 10:40   Providing broadband wireless access using WiMAX technology
– Ole Grondalen, Terje Tjelta (Telenor) and Moshe Topman (Alvarion), (BROADWAN)

10:40 - 11:00  Coffee break

11:00 - 11:20   DVB Technologies as alternative broadband access infrastructure
– Evangelos Pallis, Centre for Technological Research of Crete, Greece (ATHENA)

11:20 - 11:45   EU Scenarios of the Broadband Future
– Susan Sweet, Ovum, UK (BEACON)

11:45 - 12:05   Supporting the ALignment of IST research PROgrammes on mobile communications in the new member states
– Jakub Lebuda, MOST Foundation (ALIPRO)

12:05 - 12:25   Distributed Next Generation Networks Testbeds across Europe at the service of anyone
– Antal Bulanza, ULB, Belgium (Eurolabs)

12:25 - 12:45   Broadband and Digital Divide in Europe: Confusing messages for the European population
– Martine Ruzza, MAC, Ireland (A-Bard)

12:45 - 13:40  Lunch

Session 2    Promoting broadband take-up

13:40 - 14:10   Parameters that influence the penetration of Broadband e-Services – some examples from experience
– Georgios Argyropoulos, FITCE President, Greece

14:10 - 14:30   BReATH intermediate findings on broadband deployment
– Ioannis Tomkos, AIT, Greece (BReATH)

14:30 - 14:50   Fighting the Digital Divide in Europe
– Prof. Kofman and Prof. Fiedler (EURO NGI)

14:50 - 15:10   The broadband promotion activities in NMS countries and their status
– Martin Ulbrich, IPTS, Spain (BREAD)

15:10 - 15:30  Coffee break

15:30 - 15:50   Does geographical proximity to IT suppliers affect IT adoption by firms? – Evidence from the Sardinia case
– Anna Maria Pinna, Centro di Ricerche Nord-Sud, Italy

15:50 - 16:10   Results of the BReATH local workshop in Poland
– Janusz Granat, NIT, Poland (BReATH)

16:10 - 16:50   Speakers forum discussion on broadband take-up

16:50 - 17:00  Closing statement

Presentations

All presentations are available by clicking the respective links in the agenda above.

Results

The results of the workshop are described in deliverable D1.2.

Contact

For more information, please contact ir. Rene Kramer, co-organizer and contractor within BReATH.