FORUM CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is pleased to announce its sixth Regional Telecommunication Exhibition and Forum for Africa, ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004, to be held in Cairo (Egypt) from 3 to 8 May 2004.

The Forum at ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004 will examine and discuss telecommunication policy and development, economic and investment issues, as well as technology and its applications. The event will also include a Telecom Development Symposium (TDS) and a Youth Forum. Recognizing the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in bringing about economic development, African leaders have identified telecommunications development as a high priority area. Many African countries have embarked on efforts to establish the necessary conditions for the deployment of efficient and affordable telecommunication networks, in particular, through policies that promote investment and competition in the sector. Nevertheless, with a total teledensity of 55 lines for every 1000 inhabitants and an Internet penetration rate of only 8.5 users per 1000 inhabitants, the challenges facing Africa are enormous.

Despite these difficulties, advances in technology and the increasing affordability of telecommunication solutions continue to hold great promise for the development of telecommunications on the continent. Africa is poised for a rapid growth in mobile communications and Internet. Wireless technologies in particular are making a significant contribution in this respect. African countries now represent some of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world with the number of mobile users in some countries rapidly overtaking those using fixed lines.

Conscious of the opportunities that new and affordable telecommunication technologies have brought about, the Forum at ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004 will focus on the following themes:

ALL ABSTRACTS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT 
AND BE BASED ON CURRENT RESEARCH

The deadline for the electronic submission of abstracts via the www is:

Instructions for www submissions are available at the following URL:
www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/TELECOM/scripts/forum/abstracts/call.for.abstracts?event=aft2004

Requests for assistance on submitting your abstract should be addressed to: cfa.africa2004@itu.int

Authors who are not equipped to submit their abstracts via the www may send their contribution by e-mail or by mail (PC-formatted diskette) no later than: 18 August 2003 at midnight, Geneva time.

If you submit your abstract by e-mail, the following information is mandatory (otherwise your abstract cannot be accepted):

• AUTHORS SHOULD NOT SUBMIT MORE THAN ONE ABSTRACT.
• Authors are requested to submit a 500-word abstract of their proposed paper, or a 500-word description of their proposed tutorial, workshop or demonstration, along with a short professional biography (200 words maximum). Companies or institutions are requested to coordinate their submissions of abstracts so that only one copy of each abstract is received by ITU.
• Contributions must be unpublished and based on original research, developments and approaches.
• Contributions must be submitted in English or French.
• Papers treating overtly commercial or military subjects will be rejected.
• Papers on detailed theory and specific products or company presentations are outside the scope of the event and will be rejected.
• For practical reasons, ITU will correspond only with the principal author according to the abstract form.

All abstracts received are submitted for evaluation. The following criteria are used in the evaluation process:

If, on the basis of your submitted abstract, you are selected to make a contribution to the ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004 Forum, you may be invited to participate in one of the following roles: Keynote Speaker, Speaker, Panellist, Moderator, Rapporteur or Workshop/Roundtable Participant.

However, ALL participants will be invited to submit a full-length (5000–6000 words) paper in electronic format for publication in the Forum proceedings on the ITU TELECOM website, open to all Forum delegates and participants, as well as the press, who register before the Forum. The website will be open to all participants afterwards.