(23 March 2007 2:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Business deals worth over $ 100 million were inked during the '15th Convergence India 2007' which also saw the launch of a wide arena of products and futuristic technologies for the first time in India.

The three-day IT and Telecom event was visited by over 19,000 business visitors across the globe since it commence on 20 March.

Representatives of several telecom giants like UTStarcom, ZTE and others announced deals they had struck during the meet, organized by Exhibitions India in collaboration with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

UTStarcom announced its mega deal with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to deploy 1.3 million broadband lines across 900 cities in the country.

Two new software items were launched by a Delhi-based entrepreneur, ‘One 97 Communications’: Mobicast (Mobile Broad Cast) and Video SMS.

One 97 said Mobicast would help people to tune from their mobile phones into any radio channel that was streamed over the internet. The application will allow the users to access numerous feeds from across the world, including audio feeds of various Indian languages such as Bhojpuri, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam etc. The other software, Video SMS, will allow users to personalize self-expressions with built over voice to create a talking video message.

The multi-national Trimula of Philippines introduced ‘Nemo’ – a navigation software. With this GPRS-based software, one can navigate to find places, people, roads, and vehicles. Interestingly, one need not buy the device, and the technology can be downloaded on to a mobile phone.

Motorola director (marketing) Lloyd Mathias announced that the company was about to launch a new handset - 'Rocker' - which would act as a web cam. It could be used as a web cam while chatting through the phone.

On the second day of the meet, Mathias had told a seminar on 'Mobile Handset and New Innovations' that handsets were an integral part of people's daily life, and are extensions of their personality. People now use phones for purposes beyond talking and messaging - they look for cameras, radio etc. There are at present a total of 32 million camera users/150 million mobile users, but there will be more camera-enabled phones than cameras, and more people will listen to songs on their phones than through CDs by the end of this calendar year.

Expressing his satisfaction, Exhibitions India managing director Prem Behl told indiantelevision.com that Convergence India had emerged as the largest meet of its kind anywhere in the world, with a global participation. He added that this was not surprising, since "the year 2007 had been declared the year of the broadband and the year of ICT - rural connectivity, Broadband, 3G, enterprise and entertainment bulge, mobile content, e-governance, increase in PC penetration, Information Security and telemedicine, On-line education, telemedicine, IT applications in financial services, and e-commerce and the meet reflected a surge in industry confidence.

Convergence India was inaugurated by former Indian ambassador to the United States Abid Hussain who said India had emerged as a power by breaking the aristocracy of knowledge once confined to a few countries.

The Expo was held in Hall No. 8 to 12A in Pragati Maidan here, showcasing convergence of telecommunications, voice and data networks, fixed and mobile networks, internet, computing, delivery of content, satellite communications, television and entertainment applications, etc.

COAI director general T. V. Ramachandran said: "Today's ICT marketplace is shaped by the integration and convergence of information processing, telecommunications, networking, Internet solutions and services, IT security, bank and card technology, as well as research and technology."

The Expo spread over an area of 20,000 sq meters, with over 450 participants from over 30 countries with 1500 delegates was the third such gathering in recent weeks.

After the international Convergence Exhibition and Conference organized by the Broadcast Engineering Society (India) in Delhi from 1-3 February, the Fourth International Converging World 2007 Exhibition and Seminar was held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata from March 9 to 11, organized by the Delhi-based Zeal Broadband Solutions.

The first Convergence India had been organized 15 years earlier jointly by Exhibitions India and BES (I) but the two had parted ways after two shows and have been organizing separate events.

There was a three-day panel discussion during the meet on various aspects of ‘Convergence: The Future – Fuelling the Indian Economy’. Panelists included former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Pradip Baijal, Software Technology Parks of India Director-General S N Zindal, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Director (finance) S D Saxena, Qualcomm Chief Technology Advisor Nikhil Jain, UTStarcom Vice-President Brian Caskey, and Alcatel-Lucent Worldwide CMO John Giere.

A workshop was held on e-governance, and the conference brought together industry leaders, investors, government officials and users on a single platform to discuss all aspects of the ICT industry. Subjects included ‘Next Gen Telecom’, ‘Wireless Delivery: Broadband for all’, ‘Services on Demand: Business and Infotainment’, ‘Towards Mobile Information Society’, ‘Security Challenges for the Enterprise ’, and “Enabling SMB’s and SME’s for tomorrow’s growth”. A round-table on ‘Broadband Revolution and Rural Connectivity’ was cancelled for technical reasons.

The meet saw participation from Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Russia, Latvia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, the United States, and India .

Exhibitions India also publishes the monthly 'Convergence Plus' journal to publicise the advantages of convergence of information communication, telecom and broadcasting.