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• Mobile broadbandsubscriptions grewby 60 percent inone year and areexpected togrow from 900million in 2011to almost 5 billionin 2016.• By 2016,users livingon less than 1percent of theEarth's total landarea are set togenerate around 60percent of mobiletraffic.TT - How do you foreseethe region in terms of3G and LTE mobilenetworks deployment?AL - Each countryfeatures its ownpeculiarities andinherent challenges;as a result it is difficultto generalizeand think of eachof these countriesas one region, assome countries aremore prepared for3G and LTE thanothers. However, itis clear that there isa tremendous amountof growth taking place andwhile some countries maybe quicker in their adoptionof these new technologies,inevitably weexpect all operatorsacross the region toadopt the technologyas demand fortrue connectivityand hyper-mobilitycontinues to grow.TT - What arethe barriers inyour view withregards to mobilebroadbandadoption inthe region?AL - Smartphoneshavebeen heldback to anextent by thelimitationsof the cellularnetworks; currentsystems in place,while much fasterthan the oldertechnology thatwas available,are still slowin comparisonwith evenrelativelywe strive towork hand in handwith our customersto add value totheir businesswhile introducinginitiatives to provideoptimum benefits toend-users.inexpensivehome broadband optionssuch as cable, and lag far behindfiber optic technologies.In an age where people considerconstant connectivity anecessity, 4G is an inevitablenext step as it will allow usersto communicate more effectivelyand efficiently.TT - How does Ericsson isplanning for the network convergencetrends in the MiddleEast region?AL - Given where our customers(the operators) areheading and their strategy togo there we will take differentapproaches. In short we try tosupport them in three areas:1. Become more operationallyefficient.2. Evolve networks to meetcurrent and future needs.3. Improve net subscriber revenue.TT - In your opinion, whatis the importance of nextdecade in the mobile sector ofthe Middle East region?AL - The region shows muchpromise in the mobile sectorand you’ll find that this is oneof the most stable sectors.We expect demand for connectivityto continue to growat a rate that will push alloperators across the region to10 www.teletimesinternational.comDecember 2011