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Super-fast broadband up for discussion at NextGen 11
European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes is one of the confirmed speakers at next month's NextGen conference in Bristol.
Now in its fourth year, the event aims to bring together network operators, designers, local policymakers and regulators at the University of the West of England Conference Centre on November 15th and 16th 2011.
Among the confirmed speakers are vice president of the European Commission Neelie Kroes, president of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council Europe Chris Holden and Suvi Linden, former minister of communications for Finland and commissioner of the United Nations' Broadband Commission for Digital Development.
Exhibitors are set to include Arqiva, Thales and Fujitsu, which has unveiled plans to roll out a rural fibre optic broadband network to as many as five million homes in Britain.
The tech giant launched a trial of the super-fast broadband service, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps, in the village of Greasby on the Wirral Peninsula towards the end of last month.
Items up for discussion at NextGen 11 will include the deployment of high-speed 4G mobile broadband networks and the fact they will require fast fibre-based infrastructure to support cloud-based applications.
Several new additions have been made for the 2011 event, now in its fourth year, such as an education zone designed to highlight examples of using advanced digital tools for future learning techniques.
Marit Hendriks, director of conference organiser NextGen, said issues related to the rollout of next-generation networks are still a high priority, although many policymakers are concentrating on the economic impacts of investment.
"This year's NextGen has a stronger global input with high-profile speakers from the European Commission, the UN Broadband Commission and FTTH Council Europe, but we also provide a platform for the deployment industry and the local leaders who are driving action on the ground," Mr Hendriks remarked.