As advanced countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia continue to make strides in rolling out LTE to optimise their voice, video, messaging and Data services, Asia is undoubtedly leading the LTE evolution. With the number of users of next-generation LTE technology in the region forecast to surpass 120 million by 2015[1], Asia is one of the most dominant LTE markets, compared to its global counterparts. This provides the backdrop for LTE Asia 2014 (23-25 September) which will bring together the ecosystem to discuss the technologies driving the region’s success, including network optimisation, unified communications, TD-LTE, hetnets, enhanced services and 5G.

Now in its ninth year, LTE Asia will take place in Singapore, one of the world’s leading countries for smart technology penetration and one of the first few countries to implement a regulatory framework for unlicensed access to unused radio spectrum. As a global leader in technology adoption Singapore is the perfect platform for the conference and exhibition which is supported by Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and major regional operators, including SingTel and SK Telecom. Aileen Chia, Deputy Director General (Telecoms and Post) at the IDA will welcome delegates on Day One by providing an overview of LTE in Singapore, followed by Kuan Moon Yuen, CEO Consumer Singapore at SingTel and Jin-Hyo Park, SVP, Head of Network R&D Center, SK Telecom.

The conference boasts a comprehensive agenda delivered through a number of new tracks aimed at the advanced and emerging markets within the densely and scarcely populated areas in Asia. With 5G rollouts being planned for the region, this year’s event will include the 5G Asia Summit, which is endorsed by the 5GIC (5G Innovation Center) at the University of Surrey, and operators and content providers and is designed to explore 5G and its opportunities and challenges. For emerging markets, such as India, Bangladesh, Fiji and the Philippines, discussions will focus on developing the network within the LTE Evolution track on Day One as well as learning about monetising and pricing services in the Monetising LTE track. 

With a stellar speaker line-up from across Asia, the two-day event promises insightful case study presentations and interactive debates led by over 175 visionary speakers, including Ahsan Aziz Khan, EVP BSS & ESS Application, PTCL; Herfini Haryono, CTO, Indosat, Indonesia; Sun Tae Kim, Director of SD, EVP, LG U+, South Korea; Qiu Heng, VP of Huawei TDD product line; Francisco Claravall, VP, IT-Enabled Products & Services, Globe Telecom, Philippines; Muhammad Firdaus, Abdul Monir, General Manager of Network Architecture, Telekom Malaysia; and Ashwin Jaiswal, Head - IT Business Consulting, Reliance Communication, India.

We put forward the question, “What is the key aspect of the LTE Asia conference you are most looking forward to,” to some of this year’s event supporters:
 
“As a member of the steering committee of the GTI, I will continue to encourage the convergence of FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE. I am focusing in assisting TDD spectrum holders to find suitable business models that enable them to deploy TD-LTE and be part of the 4G LTE success story. Some of these initiatives are in promoting dual-SIM, dual-radio mobile devices, aligning the WiMAX Standard roadmap with TD-LTE advanced and educating the financial investor community on the hidden values of TDD spectrum assets.” - Pen San Tang, Founding Director, Packet One, on the GTI Steering Committee.
 
“LTE Asia is a great opportunity to mingle, interact and share with so many industry experts around. More than 1,000 attendees, 175+ speakers, exhibitors and networking sessions provide the ideal platform for that. I particularly like the idea of the Operator Mindshare, which will enable informal discussions of industry issues where we can learn from each other’s experiences. I am looking forward to this event and very excited to be part of it.” – Ahsan Aziz Khan, EVP BSS and ESS Applications, PTCL

LTE Asia incorporates pre-event Signalling and Antenna Evolution Focus Days. The Signalling Focus Day will bring together signalling experts from across the APAC region, representing both operators and the most innovative service providers. It will be an opportunity to discuss the challenges of signalling in the big data era, and what operators can do to maximise quality of service, while minimising costs and the risk of a signalling storm. New for 2014, the Antenna Evolution Focus Day will provide RAN engineers and senior management the opportunity to discover and share innovations at cell sites which are essential in the move towards LTE-A.

2014 will also host the first ever LTE Asia Awards on the evening of 24 September. The Awards ceremony will be held in the Marina Bay Sands to celebrate the best of APAC’s LTE market and recognise excellence amongst the most innovative products, services, solutions and applications driving the market forward.

LTE Asia will take place at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore, on 23-25 September 2014. To plan your visit, to view the full event programme, or to register for the event, then please visit http://asia.lteconference.com/. Alternatively, keep up to date with the event on Twitter using @LTEWorldSeries or #LTEAsia.

ENDS

[1] https://gsmaintelligence.com/analysis/2010/11/asia-pacific-to-surpass-120-million-lte-connections-in-2015/234/b