May 31, 2012

Telecom executives, software developers, IT managers, tech investors, analysts and reporters made up the 160 participants who came to the UNWIRED 2011 conference on May 26, 2011, to take part in Singapore’s independent wireless and mobile conference, once again making it a hugely successful event.

They came to listen to top-level experts from the industry, including C- and VP-level executives from Southeast Asia’s top telecom operators, as well as regional experts of big-name handset makers Motorola, Nokia, RIM and Samsung, as well as platform provider Microsoft.

The conference, held at Amara Hotel, was opened by the Infocomm Development Authority’s assistant chief executive Khoong Hock Yun, who outlined Singapore’s promising future in wireless adoption, by pointing out how the wired and wireless worlds would become even more converged in the coming years.

In a highly interactive conference featuring three panels made up of industry leaders, many members of the audience got up to ask them tough questions as the discussion went on throughout the afternoon.

In the first panel, the focus was on LTE and 4G and how Singapore was progressing towards the next-gen mobile broadband technology.

Mypaper has a report here, with an interview with SingTel’s vice-president for consumer products, Ms Chan Yim Leng, on the Asian telco giant’s plans for LTE and 4G.

SingTel confirmed yesterday that it will offer subscription services on its LTE network by year’s end, but believes dongles – gadgets that allow notebooks to go online using mobile networks – are more likely to be available first.

However, Ms Chan Yim Leng, the telco’s vice-president for consumer products, said that, if smartphones that can support 4G are available then, they will be launched. “It is dependent on device manufacturers,” she said on the sidelines of the Unwired 2011 conference.

She highlighted current compatibility issues between many LTE phones and Singapore’s upcoming networks, thus limiting the number of phones to be sold here.

The event was also covered by VR-Zone, DC Mobile and Techgoondu.

Meanwhile, the other two panels in the day provided clues to new tablets and cellphones to come up from Motorola, Nokia, RIM and Samsung in the coming months, as well as a look at the type of OS features that developers would desire from hardware makers to create winning applications for the future.

The half-day event also provided the chance for many participants to network with potential business partners as well as to catch up with old industry friends. A round of networking drinks in the evening, sponsored by Tellabs, provided a fruitful conclusion to the day for participants. Besides Tellabs, Motorola and HP were the main sponsors of the yearly event.