Title

The title of the BReATH closing conference is “Stimulating broadband in the EU New Member States”.

Date and venue

The BReATH closing conference was held on Monday 11 December, from 9h00 until 18h00. It took place in room 15 of the CICG in Geneva, Switzerland. This conference was collocated with the Broadband Europe 2006 conference and is therefore hosted by the ITU.

For information on how to reach the CICG and how to get around in Geneva, see Access to the CICG, the Geneva public transport maps, the Swiss railways and the Geneva International Airport.

For information about Geneva, see The town of Geneva and Geneva Tourism.

Registration

Attendance at and participation in the BReATH closing conference was completely free (except for the lunch).

Objectives

The objectives of the BReATH closing conference were the following:

Audience

The BReATH closing conference targeted the following entities as an audience:

Agenda

The final agenda is shown below.

09:00 - 09:20   Registration

09:20 - 09:30    Welcome and introduction
– Mr Rene Kramer, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

09:30 - 10:10  Session I – European objectives and user perspectives
Session chairman: Dr Anton Kuchar

09:30 - 09:50     BReATH rationale, activities, and preliminary findings
– Mr Rene Kramer, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (BReATH)

09:50 - 10:10     User needs for broadband in Europe
– Mr Milon Gupta, EURESCOM, Germany (BReATH)

10:10 - 10:30    Coffee break

10:30 - 12:30  Session II – Regional initiatives in NMSs
Session chairman: Mr Rene Kramer

10:30 - 10:50     Broadband strategy and practice in Poland
– Mr Wojciech Halka, Development Director @ NIT, Poland (BReATH)

10:50 - 11:10     National broadband strategy and broadband initiatives in Hungary
– Dr Oszkar Kovacs, Department of EU Affairs, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Transport, Hungary

11:10 - 11:30     Broadband development in the Czech and Slovak Republics
– Dr Anton Kuchar, IREE, Czech Republic (BReATH)

11:30 - 11:50     Broadband access development in underserved Greek territories
– Dr Theodoros Mouroutis, Information Society S.A., Greece

11:50 - 12:10     Broadband for the Stoszowice commune
– Mr Patryk Wild, Stoszowice, Poland

12:10 - 12:30     Case study: MAXPROGRES multi-service network 99 in the city of Brno, Czech Republic
– Dr Anton Kuchar, IREE, Czech Republic (BReATH)

12:30 - 13:50    Lunch break

13:50 - 15:50  Session III – Developing good practices
Session chairman: Mr Adam Kapovits

13:50 - 14:10     Best practices worldwide for broadband growth
– Ms Eri Giannaka, Computer Technology Institute, Greece

14:10 - 14:30     Municipal networks: good or bad?
– Mr Robert Goodfellow, GTel Consultancy Ltd., UK (BReATH)

14:30 - 14:50     A BReATH project case study – Evaluation of business models and technoeconomic studies for WiMax broadband network deployment
– Prof. Ioannis Tomkos, AIT, Greece (BReATH)

14:50 - 15:10     A-BARD: Recommendation for the future of rural broadband
– Ms Martine Ruzza, MAC, Ireland

15:10 - 15:30     Høykom – innovation in the public sector
– Mr Kjell Nielsen, Research Council of Norway, Norway

15:30 - 15:50     BReATH good practice framework
– Mr Goff Hill, GTel Consultancy Ltd., UK (BReATH)

15:50 - 16:10    Coffee break

16:10 - 16:30     Broadband for All – views on the digital divide
– Mr Manuel Monteiro, European Commission D-G Information Society and Media, Unit D1: Future Networks, Belgium

16:30 - 17:00  Panel discussion – The way ahead
Moderator: Prof. Ioannis Tomkos
Participants: Mr Wojciech Halka (Poland), Ms Martine Ruzza (A-BARD), Mr Manuel Monteiro (EC), Mr Goff Hill (UK, BReATH), Dr Anton Kuchar (Czech Republic, BReATH)

Presentations

All presentations are available by clicking on the respective link in the programme above.

Results

The results as well as all other aspects of this workshop are described in deliverable D1.7.

Contact

If you have any questions about this workshop, you can contact ir. Rene Kramer from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, or prof. Janusz Granat from NIT, Poland, organizers of the conference and contractors within BReATH.