I participated in the 2nd Arab IGF in Algiers, Algeria and had the opportunity to speak at the workshop “Access: Infrastructure & Critical Internet Resources”
Context of the workshop:
Broadband Internet deployment is becoming a strategic initiative in many Arab countries due to its demonstrable positive impact on GDP growth, employment and innovation. In particular, mobile broadband is witnessing a quite rapid growth in adoption due to smart phone affordability, adoption of broadband wireless protocols such as HSPA+ in preparation for LTE, as well as market competition.
This session addresses two key components affecting access to the Internet in the Arab region, namely availability of infrastructure and critical Internet resources.
More specifically, key broadband strategies currently adopted in the Arab region are explored, with key questions related to investment models and the role of government vs. role of private sector in investment and deployment of broadband infrastructure.
The question of more or less competition, particularly in physical infrastructure layer is explored, as well as an opportunity for the deployment of newer technologies such as LTE – is market-ready with sufficient demand or is lack of infrastructure the main challenge?
A critical market development is the introduction of new gTLDs in the Arab region. This session presents a case study for a new gTLD application with key lessons learned, as well as their approach to addressing known challenges in Internet resources and new technology adoption.
Chairman: M’hamed Dabouz, National Broadband Commission Coordinator, Ministry of Post & ICT, Algeria
Moderator: Hosein Badran, Board Member, ISOC Egypt Chapter
Panelists:
* Mr. Mohamed EL-Bashir, Manager of Technical Affairs, Regulatory Authority, ictQATAR
* Mr. KhaledKoubaa, Public Policy & Government Relations Manager for North Africa,
Google
* Mr. Yousef Al-Torman, Managing Director, Arab States Research and Education
Network (ASREN) Education Network (ASREN)
* Mr. HatemMokhtari, Algeria Telecom Mobilis, Algeria
* Mr. Fahd Batayneh, Internet Governance Expert
