Connect-World Europe covers a vast array of countries from a geographic, socio-economic and technology perspective.
The ICT sector in Europe represents 4.8% of the European economy. It generates 25% of total business expenditure in Research and Development (R&D), and investments in ICT account for 50% of all European productivity growth. EU investments in ICTs are due to increase by about 25% under the EU’s Horizon 2020 compared to FP7. EU investment will support the whole chain from basic research to innovation that can deliver new business breakthroughs, often on the basis of emerging technologies. Information and Communication Technologies underpin innovation and competitiveness across private and public sectors and enable scientific progress in all disciplines.
Connect-World: Europe discusses all aspects of the ICT sector in Europe. Important and relevant topics affecting the region have included: 5g Smartphones and Networks, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) Revolution, Cloud Computing and privacy issues of Social Networking.
Europe I 2022
Theme:What Trends Will Change Broadcasting in 2022 and beyond. With the rapid audience shift from television to digital, staying relevant in broadcast media ischallenging but necessary for long term viability. Broadcast television is not dead—but it isevolving rapidly and there is a need to transform to avoid becoming irrelevant. Transformingmeans shifting from serving a TV audience, to serving audiences no matter where they are.Essentially, going from a TV Broadcaster to an overall Broadcaster.According to eMarketer, TV viewing time is declining faster than anticipated. In 2019, theTV viewing time per day will be four hours ten minutes and in 2021 it will be three hours 37minutes. 2019 has been a significant year for change, with many viewers making the leaptowards digital. Younger generations are watching significantly more TV in online forms,such as mobile streaming apps, instead of on a physical television.According to Nielsen, the majority of millennials get their news from both TV and digitalsources. However, 36% get news only from digital sources, while only 8% get their newsfrom TV alone. Failing to connect with audiences online could have negative consequencesfor broadcasters looking to expand their reach.Broadcasters must adapt to these changes in order to stay relevant. Identifying the keychanges and emerging trends in broadcasting will help those in the industry determine how toadjust their media strategies, what tactics will lead to success and how to better prepare forthe future.Finally, regarding “5g and broadcasting” For many years we’ve been talking about how thebroadcast industry has one of the most well-defined use cases for 5G. The requirements aresimple. We need a solution that addresses the limitations of 4G, which means guaranteeduplink bandwidth, high availability, low latency and most importantly, a service wrapunderpinning the entire solution.You can imagine a broadcaster accessing a portal, inputting a location with bandwidth andlatency requirements that they need. The Mobile Network Operator (MNO) would thenprovide the connectivity, very similar to how some satellite operators work.This type of service needs very advanced features such as network slicing and rapidorchestration, which is a long way off and dependant on MNOs seeing a positive businesscase for developing them.These features will no doubt be developed in the longer term, not least because they are alsoneeded to support other industries such as healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing.However, the broadcast industry wants to move faster and the answer to that may lie inPrivate 5G Networks, commonly known as Non-Public Networks (NPNs).Private networks are secure, dedicated networks, physically and logically isolated from thepublic network we all use for our smartphones. This gives the broadcaster the ability toconfigure and operate them however they want. Our bandwidth requirements arediametrically opposed to how public networks are configured as we need maximum uplinkcapacity and not downlink as we are sending images from the cameras not receiving them.The availability of shared spectrum will democratise 5G private networks as it gives access tospectrum for non-MNOs, which enables companies to self-build. There is another globalinitiative called Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN), a concept based on interoperabilityand standardisation of Radio Access Networks (RAN) elements including a unifiedinterconnection standard. This enables other manufacturers to develop equipment whereaspreviously this has been the sole domain of multinational telco vendors.A good example of where private networks would be beneficial are large traveling sportsevents, such as top-tier motorsports. These are very complex operations that have to movecountries every few weeks. If the host broadcaster wants to use 5G they need to have acommercial, technical and service relationship with multiple MNOs across multipleterritories. It’s highly likely that the solutions will be implemented differently and require agreat deal of configuration. With a self-build private network, the only thing that needs to benegotiated is access to localised spectrum.One really exciting advancement in 5G technology is the ability to deploy Multi-Access EdgeComputing (MEC). This allows you to co-locate compute power at the edge of the networkmuch closer to the end equipment. This further reduces the latency and enables newopportunities in on-site production as well as new immersive experiences for audiences at theevent. Europe I 2021
Theme:Digital Transformation Digital transformation is still at its beginnings. Its full impact is impossible to predict. However, there is a widespread consensus that it will significantly change politics, societies and economies, impacting every single citizen’s life. What will the world we live in look like in the future? The central task for stakeholders from the public and private sector and civil society in the EU and beyond will be to build the future world we want to live in. To do so, they need to be prepared to proactively deal with both the challenges and the opportunities of digital transformation. To help stakeholders formulate robust yet flexible strategies on both of these sides, on what digital transformation in the EU could look like in 2035.While digital transformation is a certainty, the way in which it will unfold and the concrete impact it will have on our lives is one of the most uncertain questions of today. Digital Transformation is impacted by a myriad of different interacting social, political, economic, technological, environmental, legal and military driving forces. To unpack the complex picture resulting from the interaction of these current and future drivers will be one of the key challenges for the EU and its success as a public administration. Europe I 2020
Theme: Connect-World Europe I (2020) Theme 5G and the future of the Internet Text 5G is the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications. It succeeds the 4G (LTE/WiMax), 3G (UMTS), and 2G (GSM) systems; and it promises to be much faster than 4G. How much faster? The average download speed of a 5G connection is expected to be about 1 GBps, that’s gigabytes per second. To put that in perspective, 4G LTE was ten times faster than 3G with an average of 12-30 MBps. 5G is expected to be 20 times faster than that. For anyone who remembers dial-up Internet and waiting hours for certain songs or videos to download, imagine being able to download an entire high-definition film in a minute or so. Due to low latency—the time it takes to get a response to information sent—5G will enable things such as multiplayer gaming, self-driving cars, and wearable fitness devices that can monitor your health in real time, alerting doctors as soon as any emergency arises. Stop and think about that for a moment. That’s just one example in one industry. Imagine what it could mean for your business. 5G networks will enable Internet of Things (IoT) devices to be properly supported without putting too much strain on the company’s available bandwidth. This will make IoT solutions easier to implement, and as more IoT devices are added to the network, companies will be able to do so much more. Europe II 2019
Theme: How will VR revolutionise social media? Virtual reality has so far mainly been used in the gaming and entertainment industries, often via clunky headsets. But the technology will be picked up by the industrial and commercial sectors to improve workflow, thanks to lighter eyewear, and improved connection speeds that will allow for faster wireless data transfer. This will also have an impact on social media. Users will soon be able to “meet” each other and hang out in digital spaces rather than just liking photos and commenting on status updates. VR will help to redefine social media. Today you have a Facebook page, tomorrow or very soon you’ll have a Facebook space. Europe II 2018
Theme: Digital Transformation Powering the Global Economy Innovation is a process – it needs funding and time to bear fruit. Companies need to become familiar with data and understand the possibilities that are created by allowing the free flow of data between organisations in order to create opportunities, and putting in place the right legal and technical toolkits to support this in line with existing data protection, privacy and ethical codes. Europe I 2018
Theme: Artificial Intelligence Goes Mobile? Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. In computer science, the field of AI research defines itself as the study of “intelligent agents”: any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal. Colloquially, the term “artificial intelligence” is applied when a machine mimics “cognitive” functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as “learning” and “problem solving”. Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly become one of the hottest topics in both business and science. More leading tech companies are showing their interest in AI investment, from Google’s US$400 million acquisition of DeepMind, and Faraday Future’s unveiling of self-driving supercars at CES 2017. These are just a few examples of the commitment companies have towards this cutting-edge technology, but one of the most promising areas for AI is in mobile. The idea of having a personal assistant to help tackle everyday tasks is becoming more appealing to users everywhere. However, intelligent apps are not just limited to digital assistants but for a variety of purposes from security to e-commerce. Today, many companies are applying AI in their mobile apps to transform the customer experience. These additional applications will therefore add increased demand upon the network, and will surely require operators to increase the capacity and/ or efficiency of their networks. With the advancement of AI technology, what challenges will this bring to operators? Europe II 2017
Theme: The growing awareness of the advantages provided by virtualization technology Virtualization technology is possibly the single most important issue in IT and has started a top to bottom overhaul of the computing industry. The growing awareness of the advantages provided by virtualization technology is brought about by economic factors of scarce resources, government regulation, and more competition. Europe II 2016
Theme: Networks and network infrastructure, the future The communication network and service environment of 2020 will be infinitely richer and more complex than that of today. The expectation is that in 2020 the network infrastructure will be capable of connecting everything according to a multiplicity of application specific requirements: People, things, processes, computing centres, content, knowledge, information, goods, in a flexible, truly mobile, and powerful way. The future will encompass connected sensors, connected vehicles, smart meters and smart home gadgets way beyond our current experience of tablet and smartphone connectivity. Europe II 2015
Theme: Privacy issues of social networking The advent of the Web 2.0 has caused social profiling and is a growing concern for internet privacy. Web 2.0 is the system that facilitates participatory information sharing and collaboration on the Internet, in social networking media websites like Facebook and MySpace. These social networking sites have seen a boom in their popularity starting from the late 2000s. Through these websites many people are giving their personal information out on the internet. Europe II 2014
Theme: The promise of Software Defined Networking The Cloud, Big Data, the Internet of Everything, machine-to-machine traffic, the explosion of multi-media entertainment, mobile traffic and a host of other established and emerging applications are already straining our networks and affecting the quality of service. Best-effort service is increasingly unacceptable, and we are only at the beginning of the era of zettabyte traffic volumes. Europe II 2013
Theme: M2M beyond the hype It’s a huge market, endless possibilities – so how are the ideas materialising into real, profitable services? How M2M is exploiting existing service components? What are the business models – what will subscriber perceive as value? What is the impact on the network – is the signalling tidal wave coming? Europe II 2012
Theme: Communications in Travel Time and movements characterise both Mobile Communications and the Travel Industry and this synergy should breed interesting services. Yet, better communications can substitute the need to travel, as happens in times of strikes, volcanic ash, storms etc… The Travel Industry should also explore what they can do for the traveller, and deliver their precious ‘content’ on smart mobile devices with advanced media or as reliable and timely short text. Airports and stations are becoming hubs of connectivity. The Automotive section of communications is going beyond GPS and has enormous potential. Battery life of mobile devices is much improved, but has still a way to go. Roaming facilities and unsubscribed local services have also room to grow, catering for those high spenders ‘road warriors’. Europe II 2011
Theme: Network Capacity – meeting the challenge Wired and wireless carriers alike are hard pressed to keep up with the rapid growth of digital traffic. Video growth is aggressively pushing network capacity limits – and this is not just for YouTube – non-Internet IP video traffic for high definition video, on-demand viewing, over-the-top content traffic and the like are also growing rapidly. Nevertheless, margins are dropping, since traffic is growing faster than revenues; this will have an impact upon the ability of many service providers to finance the needed network upgrades. Europe II 2010
Theme: Feet on the ground, while on the air and in the ‘cloud’ The number of ways to connect is growing and none faster than cloud computing. Cloud computing offers pay-as-you-go, provider managed, virtualised services using – more often than not – a fully distributed infrastructure architecture. It can be a public or private service. Companies look to cloud computing to reduce the capital and operating expense they have running their own dedicated data centres. Individuals will increasingly look to the cloud to provide a wide variety of sophisticated services on the thinnest client of all – the smartphone. This edition of Connect-World will explore the benefits and risks inherent in cloud computing; its theme will be Feet on the ground, while on the air and in the ‘cloud’. Europe II 2009
Theme: ICT and the EU Innovation Agenda The EU has actively promoted innovation of all types through a series of programmes and conferences. The EU has committed over €2 billion to its plans for “Inventing the Future” by promoting research and development in ICT, including its use in such leading edge fields as ICT-bio, photonics, robotics and cognition. The far-reaching EU development programmes promise to open new markets, new sectors, and bring new players. This issue of Connect-World Europe will track the progress and the promise of these important EU initiatives. Europe II 2008
Theme: The evolving ‘Net – Rising to the challenge of rising useThe evolving ‘Net – Rising to the challenge of rising use The growth of the net, often in unexpected ways, is challenging capacity, search resources, regulations, security, equipment manufacturers, marketers, e-businesses – indeed, the entire Internet ecosystem. Where do we go? Europe II 2007
Theme: The network business – strategies for tomorrow When speaking of networks, conventional wisdom and traditional business models no longer work as they did. The lines are blurring in the fixed, mobile markets and even broadcasting markets. Wired networks now handle traffic once thought suitable only for wireless and wireless is substituting wired in a broad range of applications. Seamless handoffs between wired and wireless networks – indeed mergers, partnerships and consolidations bringing together networks and players of all sorts – further confuse the once prettily organised networking landscape. Europe 2006
Theme: Personalised, specialised and ubiquitous: IP’s future! Connect-World series of magazines is the leading magazine in the telecom and ICT industry that brings together the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap between the developed and developing world Europe 2004
Europe II 2002
Theme: Telecommunications, Finding the way – Hard Decisions Connect-World series of magazines is the leading magazine in the telecom and ICT industry that brings together the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap between the developed and developing world. Europe II 2021
Theme:Virtual and Augmented Reality – The business focus. Virtual and augmented reality is set to disrupt the digital workplace. It will not happen immediately, but it’s expected to happen in the medium-term, with many observers suggesting it will take between three and five years before the full impact is felt. That said, a number of industries are already starting to use the technology to enhance productivity and make better use of content.Proponents predict VR meetings will replace video conferencing in the near future for cutting edge firms with remote staff. Some companies with a high dependency on remote staff are already using video as the key driver to scale their report operations. Virtual reality will take that a step further. Instead of looking at people on a screen, users will be able to “sit” at the table with office-based employees using VR. Europe II 2020
Theme:Broadcasting and improved connectivity? Fibre optic technology has been a part of the telecommunications industry since the 1970s, revolutionizing data transfer and ushering in the digital information age. Adaptation of this technology by the broadcast industry only began in earnest during the mid-1990s, as part of the move toward DTV and HD production. Since then, the use of fibre optics is now part of every aspect of content production and delivery. What does the future hold? Europe III 2019
Theme: Smart TV V viewing has expanded to 5.8 hours per day in the last decade, with the hours divided between the dozens of screens. IPTV market to touch US$80 billion in 2020, Europe and Asia Pacific emerge as the burgeoning IPTV markets. Annual global IP traffic will cross the the two zettabyte threshold in 2019. Global IP traffic will touch 1.1 zettabytes per year or 88.4 exabytes (one billion gigabytes) per month in 2016. By 2019, global IP traffic will reach a new milestone figure of 2.0 zettabytes per year, or 168.0 exabytes per month. Content delivery networks will carry over half of Internet traffic by 2019. 90% global internet traffic will go video by 2018, streaming-alone households in US will hit 14 million by 2020. It would take an individual over five million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2019. Every second, nearly a million minutes of video content will cross the network by 2019. Television 2020 vision is about personalized technology, on-demand viewer experience, individuated content distribution, binge-watching, small television shows and independent cinema, innovative television formats, more localized and vernacular content, ad-free models to targeted ads and everyone connected to a Smart TV. Europe I 2019
Theme: Network Management: The impact of mobile devices. What will smartphones look like in 2019 and beyond? And how different will they seem to today’s smartphones? From graphene and holograms, to solar charging and self-healing screens, we look ahead to amazing innovations that are likely to shape the smartphones of the future. What are the implications for telecom network management? Europe I 2017
Theme: What will 5G deliver in the future? It’s been over six years since LTE 4G started rolling out, and a finalized 5G standard is expected to arrive around 2018. Now’s the time to start exploring the new frontier if you’ve got a stake in mobile. Naturally, there were plenty of demos and jargon-filled press releases about 5G during the show. But there were also some impressive demos and a palpable excitement in the air for what’s to come next. Europe I 2016
Theme: The Cloud Mobile Synergy The ties between mobile devices and the cloud grow stronger by the minute. The combination of these technologies is accelerating the growth of ‘liquid computing’ – the software driven ability to seamlessly move from one type of device to another to access, use, process, and change data. Europe I 2015
Theme: What might 5G bring? 5G (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems) denotes the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the current 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. 5G is also referred to as beyond 2020 mobile communications technologies. 5G does not describe any particular specification in any official document published by any telecommunication standardization body. Europe I 2014
Theme: Moving on with mobile – the challenge of success Mobile is growing rapidly as a technology and as a service. According to the ITU, the world will soon have more active mobile lines than people. This widespread availability of inexpensive mobile devices, free applications for almost everything, immediate access to a great chunk of the world’s accumulated knowledge, entertainment, news and social networking is slowly reshaping the way we interact with the world. Europe I 2013
Theme: The Transformation of Service Delivery – is everything going to the web The communications sector has changed irreversibly. The very nature of global connectivity has been transformed by the massive growth of mobile and social networking. Dominant players are losing ground to powerful new players under the impact of cloud services and smart devices. Innovative services are attracting users and generating new revenue streams. But how are these services being delivered and who benefits from the revenue generated? What scope remains available for Telecoms with its standard service delivery? Is closer cooperation required between Web service giants and Telecom to ensure a sustainable future? Europe I 2012
Theme: Mobilising the economy, monetizing the mobile sector Mobile is the dominant form of telephony in much of the world. Mobile is also a major economic force both as an industrial sector in its own right and as a facilitator of businesses processes and markets in general. In developing economies where mobile is often the only widely available form of telecommunications, it has created whole new markets and, for the first time, makes possible a money-based economy with bank-like services for previously ‘unbanked’ populations. In more developed regions Smartphones have put the Internet into the hands, literally, of everyone and every company. Europe I 2011
Theme: Riding the mobile wave Mobile is more than a technology; it is a social and economic phenomenon that shows no sign of slowing. Some 80 to 90 per cent of mobiles this year will ship with web browsers and the PC is no longer the primary means of Internet access. Billions who cannot afford a PC can now access the Internet via their mobile phones. Business use of mobile applications is growing strongly and this is transforming business processes and providing unprecedented facilities and economies. Europe I 2010
Theme: Wireless – growing on its own Wireless in all its forms is driving the direction and planning of the communications sector, including the fixed sector. Wireless is re-focusing IT growth and increasingly determining IT platforms and delivery mechanisms. Wireless is not the only game in town, but at times, it seems to be the only one that matters to both ICT and users sector executives. Exaggerated as some of the hype seems, wireless is – if not a new destructive technology – a destroyer of time-honoured business models and beliefs. Europe I 2009
Theme: Mobile and wireless – much more than voice and entertainment Wireless, both mobile and fixed, is rapidly growing in importance throughout the world. The boarders between mobile and fixed wireless are blurring with the advent of the femtocell and the use of mobile networks for fixed broadband access in regions not reached by fixed broadband infrastructure. Europe I 2008
Theme: From broadcast to broadband – it’s show time What the availability of new entertainment platforms means to regulators, lawyers, manufacturers, carriers, service providers and the consumer. Europe I 2007
Theme: Thriving or surviving with convergence Connect-World series of magazines is the leading magazine in the telecom and ICT industry that brings together the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap between the developed and developing world. Europe 2005
Theme: Emerging Technology, Emerging Hope (Europe) Connect-World series of magazines is the leading magazine in the telecom and ICT industry that brings together the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap between the developed and developing world. Europe 2003
Theme: Access Through Broadband (Europe) Connect-World series of magazines is the leading magazine in the telecom and ICT industry that brings together the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap between the developed and developing world. Europe I 2002
Theme: Moving Forward- Managing the Change Connect-World series of magazines is the leading magazine in the telecom and ICT industry that brings together the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap the leading industry players, regulators, associations and governments, to discuss how technological integration and digital inclusion helps reduce the gap between the developed and developing world.