The phenomenal advance of new media and communications technology across the Middle East continues to open up vast new opportunities for business and reshape many aspects of society. Today’s communication systems reveal constant expansion in TETRA-compliant systems, setting international standards for mission critical land mobile data, and the application of LTE standards in high-speed data transmission.
At the Critical Communication Conferences, you can meet all the leading players in communications technology. Over 700 delegates attended in 2014 to take full advantage of hearing presentations from leading industry experts and to network with every possible type of contact and client.
It is an exciting time to be working in this field as a whole range of industries and government agencies are using the opportunities of new media to transform the way they do business. From the oil and gas industry to those representing defense, airports, health services and construction, to name a few, everyone is clamoring for the latest communication tools.
In an area of the world once renowned for mass media that typically offered a ‘one-to-many’ approach to communication, transnational media and new social media are now a key element in the development of commercial opportunities and in giving a voice to previously marginalized groups in society, including women. Greater access to and new media are a powerful force in allowing many different groups in society to communicate their views in a comparatively censor-free environment.
Ehsan Bayat of the Bayat Foundation knows both the challenges of developing new technology and its huge potential. This Afghan-born engineer is proof that great things can be accomplished with communication systems to improve day-to-day living conditions in his home country. He founded Afghan Wireless as the first step in modernizing the country’s telecommunications sector and launched the first mobile services in 2002. Following this success, he moved on to launch Ariana Radio and Television, which now boasts an audience of around 25 million in Afghanistan and abroad. His extensive philanthropic work in the fields of education and training, healthcare and housing, among many others, has earned him widespread recognition.
Technology is being harnessed for commercial and social advances that promise much for future generations. Citizens in the Middle East are grabbing opportunities to create new types of business and new ways of working and all this in an environment where social and humanitarian developments can thrive.
