 Samuel K. Agyekum
Asst. Manager, National Communications Authority
Samuel K. Agyekum holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Telecommunications Engineering and BSc degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Ghana. He worked with Huawei Technologies (S.A) Ghana Ltd as an Optimization/QoS Analyst for 2 years on a Vodafone Managed Services Project after which he proceeded to join the National Communications Authority-Ghana in 2011. Mr. Samuel Agyekum has, from January 2015 till date, been working as Assistant. Manager and the Lead responsible for the Network Quality/Performance Monitoring functions of the Regulatory Administration Division of National Communications Authority-Ghana. My core functions have been to lead the collection, analysis and reporting of monthly network performance (QoS) and quarterly network operational reports of Operators/Service providers and provide regulatory interventions on compliance. In addition to the duties above, he has served as Project Lead of the Authority's Interconnect Clearing House (ICH) in 2016 where he coordinated the work of the Technical Working Group at the project integration level and provided regulatory support to facilitate traffic testing of the ICH with a number of IWCL operators. He is currently co-leading the technical review work on the QoS parameters stipulated in all the classes of licenses issued by the Authority to the Mobile Network Operators. He has also demonstrated a good wealth of managerial skills by designing a Balanced Scorecard and Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement Models for the then Monitoring & Compliance department as part of optimizing internal business processes for maximum productivity. He has since 2015 been serving as Performance Management Champion in his organization and helping to drive staff energies to desired work outputs. He was in November 2017, nominated to server on newly created Service Monitoring Owners (SMO) group whose mandate is to ensure enhanced oversight on all twenty six (26) regulated services of the Authority. He has participated widely in ITU-T programmes such as Study Group 12 meetings on Quality of Service (QoS), Quality of Experience (QoE) and Performance, QSDG meetings, SG 12 Africa Regional and West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) meetings. I have made a number of paper contributions and presentations at these events. I was the Editor and Co-editor of ITU-T E.807 and E.811 Recommendations, both of which have been approved and published as international standards by the ITU. |
 Khalil Amiroune
Managing Director of Midwex Group
Khalil Amiroune serves as Managing Director of Midwex Group, a company specializing in telecoms and healthcare value-added services. Mr. Amiroune has 15 years of professional career with executive level experience. He holds Master of Engineering from the prestigious French Grande-Ecole Mines-Télécom, and Master of Business Administration from the University of Bradford - School of Management. |
 Rami Alnatsheh
Professional Services Manager, InfoVista, USA
Dr. Alnatsheh serves as the professional services manager at InfoVista, covering ASIA, Africa and Eastern Europe for Network Testing and RAN Engineering divisions. He holds a PhD in data mining and a Master\Bachelor of science degrees in electrical engineering. He has over 18 years of experience in the Telecommunications industry, where he contributed in network optimization for carriers in the USA and led the 3G performance team in Qualcomm for several years in San Diego before joining InfoVista. He has several patents in the domain. |
 Ali Drissa Badiel
ITU Area Office for West Africa, Dakar
M. Ali Drissa Badiel est le Représentant de Zone de l'UIT pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest depuis le 1er Octobre 2012. De nationalité Burkinabé, il est Ingénieur Télécom diplômé de Télécom & Management SudParis à Evry en France en 1996. Il est aussi titulaire d'une Maitrise de Physique Pure de l'Université de Ouagadougou en 1993, après le baccalauréat série C obtenu au Lycée Scientifique de Yamoussoukro en Cote d'ivoire en 1989. M. Badiel a récemment obtenu un MSc en cybersécurité et un MBA de l'Université du Maryland (UMUC, aux États Unis) respectivement en 2013 et 2014. M. Badiel a rejoint l'UIT en Novembre 2007 à Addis Abeba où il a servi pendant 5 ans comme conseiller principal du Directeur Régional pour l'Afrique, spécialisé dans les réseaux large-bande, IP, les applications TIC et la cybersécurité, puis Représentant de Zone de l'UIT par intérim pour l'Afrique du Centre, basé à Yaoundé en 2009. Avant l'UIT, il a été cadre supérieur pendant 11 ans à l'Office National des Télécommunications (ONATEL S.A.) à Ouagadougou où il a occupé diverses fonctions, dont celle de chef de département de l'Internet (Fasonet). Il a en outre été consultant pour l'UIT et l'Union Africaine entre 2004 et 2007, enseignant vacataire dans plusieurs écoles supérieures au Burkina Faso et membre du groupe de travail de la Francophonie à l'ICANN de 2000 à 2007. M. Badiel parle couramment Anglais et a des notions d'Allemand et d'Arabe. |
 Wolfgang Balzer
Managing Director, Focus Infocom GmbH
Wolfgang graduated in Physics at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, on the subject of optical nonlinear dynamics and the wider field of laser technology and optical computing. During this time he was also leading several projects in the field of industrial measurement technology. After a postdoctorate work on optical neurochips and neural networks in Japan, he founded Focus Optics which later became Focus Infocom, which specializes in test and measurement systems for mobile networks.
After several years as head of software development, his principal role today is R&D, general business development and key account management. In this role, his work includes definition of end to end test and measurement solutions, which include QoS and QoE metrics. A recent example is a nationwide assessment of train routes for fitness of in-train WiFi based on multi-modem routers.
Work in standardization started more than 10 years ago in GSMA IREG which later moved into ETSI as STQ MOBILE. This group produced various technical reports and standards, such as the TS 102 250 series which later went into ITU-T Rec. E.804. Currently Dr. Balzer works in several technical committees in ETSI, such as STQ and INT, where various liaisons to ITU SG11 and SG12 exist.
Work in the DFS context started around 2015 in the context of the respective ITU Focus Group. |
 Vinícius Caram
Anatel, Brazil
Advisor of the Management of Quality Obligations Control of Anatel. Electrical Engineer, Master in Telecommunications Engineering (2008), postgraduate in Telecommunications Management (2002) at University of Brasília. He worked for 13 years as a specialist engineer and consultant in O & M, Optimization and Mobile Network Planning. At Anatel, he worked in the regulatory area, with emphasis on the studies of femtocells, 700MHz and radio bidding bids. Coordinator for the Implementation of the Risk Management Process to Critical Infrastructures of the Telecommunications Networks and responsible for the Network Monitoring Center. One of the creators of the Anatel Mobile Service Application, winner of the Mobile Award TELA VIVA 2014. Coordinator of the Quality of Mobile Networks for World Cup and Olympic Games. Anatel representative at the Institutional Security Office in the subgroup of Critical Infrastructure for Telecommunications and Broadcasting. He acted academically as a graduate professor in Electrical Engineering disciplines and postgraduate in Telecommunications MBA. |
 Laurent Catinot
Telecom Division Manager, NEXA TECHNOLOGIES, France
Laurent Catinot is the Telecom Division Manager of Nexa Technologies and in charge of Africa business development. He has been working in the Telecom test equipment and QoE/QoS monitoring systems industry for 30 years. He has a master's degree in Instrumentation from the University of Lille (France). |
 Erwin Dirckx
Sales & Marketing Director, Commsquare, Belgium
Erwin Dirckx holds a Master of Science degree in electronics and an MBA, both of the University of Leuven. He is active in the Service Provider industry for the last 10 years. Erwin is leading the Sales & Marketing of Commsquare, a division of the Systemics Group, and focusing on benchmarking, active and passive monitoring and expert services. The Systemics Group is an established player on Quality of Services solutions for mobile operators and regulators. Before working for Commsquare, he was founder and Managing Director of 2 ICT/Telecom system integrators in the Benelux. |
 Ayoub Elhaddouj
Midwex Africa
Ayoub Elhaddouj serves as Technical Manager at Midwex Africa. Mr. Elhaddouj is holds an Engineering Degree from the prestigious Ecole Mohammadia in Morocco. He has a strong background in RF, Network Planning, Network Optimization and QOS Measurement. |
 Sonia Kammoun
Senior Telecom Engineer, CERT
Sonia Kammoun is a senior Telecom Engineer and has worked since the year 2009 for CERT, Research and Studies Telecommunications Center. She has an Experience of more than 9 years within the CERT in the division of Assessment of the quality of service of mobile Networks. Since 2016, she has been in charge of numerous projects as well for Regulatory Authority as for mobile operators. These projects focused on benchmarking, evaluation and optimization of the performances of the mobile networks. She has a National Diploma and Master's degree in Telecommunications from the Higher School of Communication of Tunis (SUPCOM). |
 Jonathan Martin
Telecom Technical Support, NEXA TECHNOLOGIES, France
Jonathan Martin holds a degree in Networks and Telecom from the University Institute of Technology of Cachan (France). He joined Next Technologies in October 2016 and is currently working as the telecom technical support for Africa. He is in charge of supporting QoS and QoE solutions for NEXA. |
 Collins Mbulo
Vice Chairman, ITU-T Study Group 12 Regional Group for Africa; ZICTA, Zambia
Collins Mbulo holds a Master of Law degree in Information Technology and Telecommunications and also holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University of Zambia. Collins is Vice Chairman of the Study Group 12 Regional Group for Africa. At national level in Zambia, he is Chairman of Quality of Service and Quality of Experience standardisation committee (Technical Committee 3).
He currently manages the QoS/QoE function at Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority as Senior Engineer – Quality of Service. He joined ZICTA from Airtel (Celtel Zambia then) in 2008, and has worked at ZICTA in various portfolios to date; including working as Engineer Radio Planning & Licensing, Projects Engineer and now Senior Engineer – Quality of Service. Collins has thirteen years working experience in the ICT sector. |
 Tahitii Obioha
Planet Network Internationa
Tahitii Obioha holds a B.Eng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
from Federal University of Technology Owerri Nigeria, a diploma in Mobile Communications from Telecoms Academy (UK) and a M.S in Telecommunication Systems and IT Networking from Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse France.
He is currently involved in recent deployment of LTE Network in France with Ericsson Team for ORANGE and Huawei Team for BOUYGUES. Prior to joining PLANET NETWORK INTERNATIONAL in 2008, Tahitii spent a year as a consultant at Nokia Siemens Networks, planning and optimizing 2G and 3G networks for major mobile operators(ORANGE and SFR) in France.
Tahitii is an active member of IEEE since 2004. |
 Edoyemi Ogoh
Nigerian Communications Commission
Mr Edoyemi Ogoh is currently the Head of Interconnect and Network Monitoring / Quality of Service at the Nigerian Communications Commission with responsibility for ensuring operators deliver on an ongoing basis optimal quality of service delivery to Nigerian telecommunications subscribers. Mr Edoyemi Ogoh is a graduate of Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. He has an MBA from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom and GMP from Wits Business School, South Africa. He has worked for different telecommunications companies in Nigeria including Mobitel, MTN, Vmobile, Zain and Airtel before joining the Nigerian Communications Commission in 2012. He has about 20 years experience in the telecommunications industry. These experiences cuts across mid to senior level responsibilities for fixed and mobile network planning, Implementation and operations. |
 Giovanni Perrone
Product Manager, CommProve
Giovanni Perrone holds a degree in Electronics and a Master Degree in Computer Science and Automation. He currently works in the Product Management department of CommProve, where he is in charge, among other things, of the Artificial Intelligence development program. He has been working in the mobile and Telco domain for more than 15 years, coming from another 10 years spent in the design of digital solutions for renewable energy and industrial automation applications. Previously to his engagement in Product Management, he has been working in the post-sales area, specializing in project and program management, earning a PMP certification in 2007 and a Certified Scrum Master one in 2012 and has more than 10 years of experience in project and program management in Telecom, IT and Hi-Tech domains. In parallel to his working activities, he is currently cooperating with the "SMART Engineering Solutions & Technologies (SMARTEST)" Research Centre of the eCampus University (Italy). |
Joachim Pomy
Consultant, Opticom
Joachim received his Diploma in Communications Engineering from Darmstadt Technical University in 1984. The same year he joined Telefonbau & Normalzeit in Frankfurt where he became responsible for PABX transmission planning, and approval, for mouth-to-ear voice quality and for perceptual evaluation of users' satisfaction. Since 1988 he is actively involved in related standardization efforts in ITU-T, ETSI, MESAQIN, BITKOM, TIA, T1A1 and IEEE. In 2002 Joachim was awarded the ETSI internal Service Medal for his achievements with the Asia-Pacific-Telecommunity (APT). In 2008 Joachim started to work as a Freelance Consultant in Telecommunications & International Standards. He completed successfully ITU projects on QoS in Nepal, the Maldives and for Afghanistan; he gave QoS/QoE workshop presentations e.g. in Spain, Kenya, the Maldives, Lebanon, South-Korea and Ghana. Joachim lead an ETSI project on Adaptation of the ETSI QoS Model to better consider results from field testing. Joachim has taken responsibility and leadership in ETSI STQ and ITU-T SG12 for more than one decade. Together with researchers from OPTICOM, Swissqual and TNO he supported actively the standardization of P.863 (Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Prediction) as the appointed editor of P.863 and P.863.1 including their the recent revisions. For the African Regional Group in ITU-T SG12 Joachim has edited Recommendation E.804 on Mobile QoS and a Supplement for Regulatory Aspects of QoS. Joachim is vice chair of ETSI STQ and (co-) rapporteur for multiple areas in ITU and ETSI; he is also the (co-) author of more than 150 contributions to ITU, ETSI and TIA. Since 2015 Joachim is actively involved in the work on QoS and QoE for Digital Financial Service, Mobile Money and similar services. |
 Tiago Sousa Prado
ANATEL
Tiago is a Communication Networks Engineer with a Master degree in Business Administration and a Master degree in Public Policy and Economic Development. He has 10 years of experience in the public and private sector on the ICT industry in a national and international level, having worked at IT deparment of Banco do Brasil, the biggest retail bank in Brazil, and being currently at Anatel, the Brazilian telecommunication's national regulatory authority. He has focused his career in providing value-added solutions to governments and companies worldwide based on efficiency, reliability and economic rationality principles, especially by elaborating public policy and regulatory solutions and by actively speaking and contributing in the ITU and CITEL conferences throughout the years. He is currently Vice-chairman of the ITU-T Study Group 12 and QSDG, and also co-rapporteur of Q12/12. |
 Tahiry Rakotoheriniaina
ARTEC
Tahiry Rakotoheriniaina a obtenu son diplôme d'ingénieur en Télécommunications en 2005 à l'Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique d'Antananarivo Madagascar .Elle a entamé sa vie professionnelle en ayant travaillé chez le fournisseur d'équipements Huawei Technologies Madagascar dans la gestion des Sous-traitants en travaux des Télécoms. Au cours de l'année 2006, elle a travaillé dans le département Téléphonie du prestataire de service CIMELTA Madagascar en tant qu'Ingénieur de projet. Ensuite, elle a rejoint l'Equipe technique qui avait mis en place l'opérateur de téléphonie mobile TELMA MOBILE, en fin 2006.Elle y travaillait en tant qu'Ingénieur dans le domaine des Interconnexions et du Roaming International pendant 5 ans avant d'y occuper le poste de Responsable du Département Performance réseaux (pour le réseau Filaire, Mobile et Broadband Fixe) de 2011 à 2016. Depuis Février 2017, elle a intégré l'Autorité de régulation des Technologies de communication (ARTEC) et assure le suivi de la qualité des services offerts par les opérateurs nationaux. Elle est une passionnée des télécommunications et s'intéresse à tout ce qui concerne les aspects techniques de la qualité de service et de la qualité d'expérience. |
 Aymen Salah
Data Analyst, INTT
Eng. Aymen Salah is a data analyst. He joined the Tunisian Telecommunications authority (INTT, Instance Nationale des Télécommunications de Tunisie) since 2007, where he was charged of the audit of QoS of mobile networks. He currently holds the position of Head of mobile networks department.
He is a vice-chairman of ITU-T SG12 and vice-chairman of ITU-T SG12 Regional Group for the Africa Region. |
 Amadou Sowe
Senior Manager Consumer Affairs-Technical
Mr. Sowe graduated with a Master’s degree in Business and Management at the University of Gloucestershire, UK and has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science minor in mathematics from the University of Kentucky. Mr. Amadou Sowe has been working for PURA for the past 4 years at the Consumers Affairs Directorate. Mr. Sowe has a dynamic management career with over 7 years progressive experience in management. He has proven ability to collecting, collating and carrying complex data analysis. He is responsible for all QoS Data analysis and interpretation at the Authority. |
 Malick Sylla
ARTP
Head of QoS and Coverage department at ARTP Senegal, Malick has several years experience in the Telecommunication Industry. He has accumulated 4 years as Network Operation Center (NOC) Supervisor, 5 years as Intelligent Network Supervisor, and 3 years as Mobile Money ¨Project Manager. Since 2014, he is handling all QoS/QoE issues at ARTP Senegal. Malick received his Engineering Degree in Telecommunication at INPL France and he is also holding two MBA degrees one in Management Information System at Sullivan University in Louisville Kentucky and another one in Corporate Economic Policy Implementation at Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. |
