Ekuwem to chair Broadband Summit

THE National President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, has been named the chairman of the 2010 stakeholders summit tagged ‘e-Business Life Broadband Summit.’

The event slated to hold in Lagos on Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi Lagos, comes with the theme: “Broadband Revolution: Harnessing Broadband for National Development.”

According to the chief executive, e-Business Life Communication Limited, Mrs. Ufoma Daro, Dr. Ekuwem who also is the Executive Vice Chairman, Teledom Group, was given the honour to preside over this year’s summit due to his dynamic personality.

She also said that Ekuwem pledged his full support and promised to mobilize the membership of ATCON to participate fully at the event, which promises to chart a course for the successful deployment of broadband in the country.

Equally, she said that why the organizing committee chose Dr. Ekuwem to chair this all important summit was “because we have seen the kind of passion he has for the industry as a whole and the development of broadband infrastructure, which he says will help Nigeria reap the digital harvest in 2015.

For her, the broadband summit is crucial for the industry as the availability and effective utilization of broadband infrastructure remains a key to the next stage of growth in the ICT industry.

Though she acknowledged that Nigeria made giant strides in the telecoms industry in the last decade, Mrs. Daro noted that Internet sub-sector of the industry still needs a lot of attention.

“We all know how important the Internet is today across the globe. It is therefore very painful that today many Nigerians still endure the use of plug –and-play Internet services that are very epileptic, many still visit cybercafés at odd hours of the day for poor and frustrating services and yet others have to stay back after work just to access the Internet,” she noted.

For her, the plan is that the forum would help the nation to be proactive in planning so as to effectively utilize the expected broadband.

She disclosed that industry trade associations and several telecoms companies have expressed their supports and interest to participate at the programme, which is one of the first major events in the industry for the year 2010.


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