November 29, 15:00 – 17:00 (EET)
#5GMadeTogether: Scenarios for Open RAN deployments in Central-Eastern Europe
Partnership: IS-Wireless
Support: CEE Digital Coalition
Details:
● Place: Riga, Latvia – onsite event
● Type: Roundtable, participant, moderated discussion
● Free of charge, invitation only, one representative per each organisation
Open seats for registration without prior invitation: 4
Background
The Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) lacks strong leadership on the future of mobile networks. As we know the traffic in mobile networks grows exponentially while earnings of mobile operators decline. It’s clear there is a need for a paradigm shift as old models will stop working very soon. To be able to tackle upcoming challenges actions must be taken now. But what exactly needs to be done? And who should be doing it. How will those actions affect the future and the lives of over 150 millions of people living in the region? The decisions are difficult not only because of the unknown consequences but also because of both: lack of knowledge on technological progress and media hype and lobby sponsored by old yet still big traditional vendors.
By this roundtable and workshop we want to shed some light on the current situation and focus on consequences of today’s actions or lack of actions for the future. We want to get together with people from organisations active in the mobile telecommunications market – companies, regulators, R&Ds, etc. especially those focused on open, inclusive ecosystems and work out
scenarios for the future. Knowing what the future could bring would ease those who need to make decisions in the sea of uncertainty. We believe it will empower them to take bold decisions which will have a positive impact on the lives of millions of people.
It may sound cliche yet it’s true – the future will come anyway, the thing is to shape it according to the best interest of the people and organisations from the region. The region which has ambitions to develop home-made technologies and not only import them. The region which wants to keep the best talents who can contribute to further development and not let other players exploit the base of well-educated human capital. That’s what we are aiming for – the window of opportunity is open now thanks to the major shift on the telecommunications market. Our region can plan a vital role here.
Goal of the meeting
The goal of the meeting is to engage people in discussion about the future of mobile networks. The result of it will be possible scenarios on how the future can develop depending on the actions we take now. Scenarios can be categorized from the most to the least probable ones.
The second goal is to share best practices and inspiration – we will have people from various contexts in the room, all of them working on the same goal. New partnerships and initiatives could also emerge from this cooperation.
The bigger goal behind this meeting is creating a feeling of ownership – a feeling that the Central-Eastern Europe can take responsibility for itself and not rely only on others. Thanks to this major shift on the telecommunications market we as the region could be not only subcontractors as it’s very often nowadays but a true innovation leader and technology exporter.
