Stellar Speaker Line Up Taking Shape for the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit 2016

Senior representatives from the Colombian Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC), Microsoft, and the Wireless Broadband Alliance to headline Global Summit agenda

Bogota, Colombia, 3 March 2016: The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) today announced more influential speakers for its 2016 Global Summit, which will be held in Bogota, Colombia (26-28 April 2016). Latin America offers many opportunities to innovatively increase spectrum supply and availability, and the region is already steadily progressing towards closing the digital divide through small pilot projects utilising spectrum sharing technologies in unassigned and otherwise unused UHF broadcast frequencies. The Global Summit will welcome key stakeholders and regulators to address the many opportunities which spectrum sharing technologies can create, including achieving global connectivity through affordable broadband, enabling the Internet of Things, and alleviating the spectrum crunch.

The Global Summit agenda will feature high profile speakers from Latin America and around the world including these recently confirmed speakers:

Mr. Juan Manuel Wilches Durán, President, Latin American Forum of Telecommunications Regulators (Regulatel) and Executive Director of the Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC), Colombia
Mr. Orlando Ayala, Chairman for Emerging Markets, Microsoft
Mr. Shrikant Shenwai, Chief Executive Officer, Wireless Broadband Alliance
Microsoft’s core mission is to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Orlando Ayala says he is “pleased to be participating in the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Annual Summit to share how Microsoft and its partners are investing in innovative, practical, and scalable last-mile access technologies, including those that leverage innovative new dynamic spectrum sharing technologies. These solutions will reduce the cost of Internet access and help billions more people affordably get online to open unlimited opportunities. Through partnerships with network operators and others in the public, private, and academic sectors, these projects are primed to deliver the greatest socio-economic impact to the greatest number of people toward building a more inclusive global society where individuals, communities and peoples are empowered to achieve their full potential.”

Orlando Ayala is Chairman and Corporate Vice President of Emerging Businesses at Microsoft where he catalyzes development of new business models for the company designed to accelerate growth with emerging audiences, segments and markets around the world. In his 25 year history with the company, Ayala has served in a number of executive roles including leading Microsoft WW Sales, Marketing and Services Group where he opened 33 worldwide subsidiaries.

The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance is pleased to also confirm speakers from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the Botswana Innovation Hub, PolicyTracker, WhiteSpace Alliance, and Google. These representatives will join an incredible line up of speakers from across the Latin America region and around the world.

Following the morning keynotes, Day One’s proceedings will begin with a session including Mr. Juan Manuel Wilches Durán, where he will join Mr. Mario Maniewicz (ITU) and Mr. Oscar Leon Suarez (CITEL) for a discussion moderated by Dr. Martha Liliana Suárez Peñaloza, Director General, Agencia Nacional del Espectro (ANE), Colombia, which is co-hosting the Summit. The session will address the challenges to universal and affordable connectivity in Latin America and beyond. Mr. Durán has abundant experience in policy definition and regulation for the promotion and development of services in telecommunications.

The first session on Day Two will focus on innovative use cases for dynamic spectrum access technologies, including for transport, agriculture, and healthcare. Speaking ahead of his participation on this discussion, Dr. Apurva Mody, Chairman, WhiteSpace Alliance commented: "White Space technologies are being deployed to not only provide rural broadband connectivity, but increasingly as low cost middle mile solutions for Internet of Things Applications.”

While covering important issues such as the challenges to universal and affordable connectivity in Latin America and beyond, the Global Summit will focus on the implications for policymakers, businesses and civil society. The Summit will also discuss the next opportunities for Dynamic Spectrum Access in 2.3GHz, 3.5GHz, 5GHz and above with international regulators giving their comments on the best regulatory practices for greater spectrum utilization from across the globe.

“We are very pleased with the caliber of speakers joining the agenda at the 2016 Global Summit,” said Professor H Nwana, Executive Director of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. “The 2016 Global Summit will be instrumental in paving the way for making a globally connected world a reality and will provide the catalyst for creating the best practices for future spectrum policies.”

To stay updated with the full DSA Global Summit 2016 agenda as more speakers are announced, please visit http://www.dynamicspectrumalliance.org/global-summit/ or follow @dynamicspectrum and use the hashtag #DSA16GS on Twitter.