Leading CEOs to Debate Industry's Future at GSMA's Mobile Asia Congress

Leading CEOs to Debate Industry's Future at GSMA's Mobile Asia Congress

September 17, 2007

- Macau to Host Asia's Most Influential Mobile Executives

    HONG KONG, Sept. 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- An
unprecedented gathering of leading operator CEOs(i) will
debate the future of the mobile industry at the GSMA's
Mobile Asia Congress at the new Venetian Macau Resort on
November 12-15. The chief executives of China Mobile, the
world's largest operator, NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest
operator, MTS, Russia's largest operator, the Chairman and
Group Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, India's largest
operator, and the CEO of Mobilink, Pakistan's largest
operator, the Chairman of Smart, the Philippines' largest
operator, Grameenphone, Bangladesh's largest operator, and
Telstra, Australia's largest operator, will be among the
keynote speakers.

    They will be joined by many other industry leaders and
visionaries, including the President of China Unicom, the
CEOs of Softbank of Japan, Orascom Telecom, VimpelCom of
Russia and the CEOs of equipment vendors Ericsson and ZTE
and content companies Warner Music and EMI Music
International.

    Preceded by a board meeting of the GSMA, which
represents more than 700 mobile operators from around the
world, the Congress provides a unique opportunity for the
leaders of Asia's mobile operators to discuss the most
strategic issues facing the mobile industry today. Among
the themes for the keynote sessions: The shape of the
mobile industry in three years time; the respective roles
of operators, equipment vendors, Internet companies and
content suppliers; future revenue models; reinventing cost
structures; the potential of mobile broadband, low ARPU
growth and the forms of entertainment that will work best
on mobile.

    "With mobile broadband services proliferating,
handset technology evolving rapidly and the Internet fast
going wireless, this industry is reaching a major inflexion
point as many operators, vendors and entertainment companies
review their strategies, their business models and their
partnerships," said Craig Ehrlich, Chairman. "A
catalyst for the leaders of Asia's mobile ecosystem to
engage in face-to-face discussions, the Mobile Asia
Congress will play a major role in shaping the strategic
agenda of this industry, while setting trends in the
world's fastest-growing mobile markets." Asia-Pacific
is adding 20 million new mobile connections every month -
more than four times the growth rate of any other region.

    The Congress will also explore Asia's role as a pioneer
of new services, the imminent rollout of mobile broadband in
China and India and how mobile technology will showcase the
Olympics in Beijing next year. On the first evening of the
event, there will be the presentation of the GSMA's Asia
Mobile Awards, recognizing the best commercial mobile
products and services targeted at Asian consumers.

    The most innovative ideas in the Asia-Pacific region
will also be highlighted in Macau through the Mobile
Innovation Awards, the culmination of the two-day Mobile
Innovation Summit. A key part of the GSMA's new Mobile
Innovation Programme, the Summit will bring together the
inventors of the region's most innovative products,
services and technologies with operators, the investor
community, and vendors.

    Ministers and Heads of Regulatory Authorities from
approximately 20 countries in the Asia Pacific Region are
also set to gather in Macau to attend the GSMA's Government
Symposium. At the Symposium, sponsored by Telenor, they will
discuss the most pressing regulatory issues in the region
with senior representatives from international institutions
and CEOs from the mobile industry.

    Notes to Editors:

    (i)Confirmed speakers include:
    - Wang Jianzhou, CEO, China Mobile
    - Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Group Managing Director,
Bharti Airtel
    - Masao Nakamura, CEO, NTT DoCoMo
    - Shang Bing, President, China Unicom
    - Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO, Softbank
    - Sol Trujillo, CEO, Telstra
    - Alexander Izosimov, CEO, VimpelCom
    - Naguib Sawiris, Chairman & CEO, Orascom Telecom
    - Manuel Pangilinan, Chairman, PLDT and Smart
Communications
    - Arve Johansen, CEO, Telenor Asia
    - Zouhair Khaliq, CEO, Mobilink
    - Erik Aas, CEO, Grameenphone
    - Sigve Brekke, CEO, DTAC
    - Dr. Yeon-Hak KIM, CSO, KTF
    - Leonid Melamed, President and CEO, MTS OJSC
    - Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, CEO, Dialog Telekom
    - Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO, Ericsson
    - Yin Yimin, CEO, ZTE
    - Jean-Francois Cecillon, CEO, EMI International
    - Edgar Bronfman, CEO, Warner Music
    - Todd Miller, Executive Vice President & Managing
Director, Asia, Sony TV
    - Marco Boerries, Head of Connected Life, Yahoo!
    - Deep Nishar, Director of Mobile Products, Google
    - Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama
    - Jeremy Pink, President & MD Asia Pacific, CNBC

    Bona fide journalists are invited to apply to register
to attend the Congress via
http://www.mobileasiacongress.com/en

    For more information about the GSM Association see:
    http://www.gsmworld.com


    For further information contact:

    Mark Smith or David Pringle
    Tel:   [phone]
    Email: [e-mail]