“Content, Interactivity and Delivery Channels” will be the focus of the 2nd Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference.

March 29, 2005

To be held on June 11 & 12, 2005 in Amman, Arab Advisors’ second major regional conference will host over 28 top-notch industry leaders interacting with over 300 telecoms and media industry executives. Underscoring the importance of the conference and its topics, five international and regional leading companies are sponsoring the event. Jordan’s latest GSM operator and its first 3G operator, UMNIAH MOBILE Company, is the conference main sponsor. The conference is also sponsored by Jawwal (the GSM network of Palestine), XPress (Jordan’s iDEN operator), Batelco Jordan (a leading Internet and datacomm operator in Jordan), Motorola (the world-class global communications leader), Jordan Telecom (Jordan’s leading telecommunications solutions provider) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) (the World's largest enterprise software company). The conference, organized by the Arab Advisors Group as part of its vision to contribute to building and growing the Arab World’s information economy, is free to all telecom operators and TV and radio broadcasters.

With competition increasing across the Arab region (18 Arab countries already host some 38 cellular operators), voice revenues are facing downward pressures. To enhance revenues, and customer retention, Arab telecom operators will need to deliver useful, relevant and contextual content. As such partnerships with media operators (online and traditional broadcast and print) will gather momentum.

Moreover, the ongoing liberalization of fixed services (data and voice) in many Arab countries such as Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and others will enhance the uptake of broadband services across the Arab World. Indeed, many media TV broadcasters are already offering broadband Internet services in the Arab World, and quite a few fixed operators (such as Jordan Telecom and UAE’s Etisalat) plan triple play services to their subscribers.

The convergence of media, telecom and information technology pushes the hitherto disconnected players in the three sectors towards operating in an increasingly merged segment. This convergence carries threats to existing revenue and business models, but also bears new opportunities for new models.

The many Satellite TV operators in the Arab World are increasingly adopting cellular and fixed feedback channels to offer interactive revenue generating services to their audiences. These operators are trying to capitalize on the wide adoption of cellular services in the Arab region as well as that of the Sat TV dishes. “Arab Advisors Group’s research shows that close to 89% of households in Saudi Arabia, 91% of households in Jordan and 46% of households in Greater Cairo - Egypt have a Sat TV dish” noted Jawad Abbassi, Arab Advisors President. “While the addressable market is huge, the use of interactive services is still minimal: Less than 2% of SAT TV viewers in Jordan and Egypt use SMS voting on TV programs or SMS chatting. This underlines the need for strategies by telecom as well as media players to produce more relevant and useful content to enhance the usage levels”. Mr. Abbassi added.

To maximize the benefit, Arab Advisors Group invites media and telecom operators to attend the conference at no charge. Other paying delegates will receive their choice of Arab Advisors research reports when they register. Full details on the second annual Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference on June 11 & 12 2005 are found at http://www.arabadvisors.com/Convergence/schedule.htm

Arab Advisors Group’s Second Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference 2005 is the ideal forum for discussions, debates and networking on the convergence trends underway in the Arab media and telecom markets. The conference will be held under the Patronage of Her Excellency Ms. Nadia Al Saeed, Jordanian Minister of ICT.

Feedback from delegates to the 2004 event shows that 94% of conference delegates rated the conference content as good, very good or excellent. 73% of delegates will attend the second conference in 2005, and the remaining 27% will consider attending.

Delegates to the Second Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference 2005 will also receive all presentations and speeches of the First Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference 2004.

In addition to the sponsoring companies of UMNIAH MOBILE Company, JAWWAL, XPress, Batelco Jordan, Motorola, Jordan Telecom and Oracle Corporation, regional companies will be present at the conference’s exhibition hall. These include AME Info, Al Bawaba, Maktoob.com and MENA FN. A few sponsorship and exhibition opportunities remain; please contact the Arab Advisors Group for more information.

Please visit the sponsors’ home pages for more information:

Main Sponsor:
UMNIAH MOBILE Company www.umniah.com

Sponsors:
JAWWAL www.jawwal.ps

XPress www.xpress.jo

Batelco Jordan www.batelco.jo

Motorola www.motorola.com

Jordan Telecom www.jordantelecom.jo

Oracle Corporation www.oracle.com

The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has already produced close to 330 reports on the Arab World’s communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group’s (www.arabadvisors.com) Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom). To date, Arab Advisors Group has served more than 220 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients.