Svetlana Skvortsova,
one of the two winners of the Young Minds in Telecom
2005, shares her experiences from the SPU internship
My name is
Svetlana Skvortsova and I am a winner of
2005 Young Minds in Telecom competition. My
background is quite diverse. I have graduated
from Moscow State Lomonosov University as a
linguist and specialist in intercultural
communications and Public Relations, but also
obtained a Diploma in Information Systems
Management from the University of California in
Riverside.
Currently I
am completing part-time studies towards Master
of Communications Management degree at Coventry
University Business School and plan to obtain a
PhD from Moscow Technical University for
Communications and Informatics with
specialization in VoIP technology and
applications in a year from now.
Since
I was an undergraduate student and for the last
seven years I have been working at different
positions in Ericsson AB in Moscow, lately as a
marketing and business development manager.
It was by a
mere chance that I saw the competition
announcement, despite the fact that I visit the
ITU site regularly. It was about a week before
the deadline, but the moment I saw the topic
“Making the internet mobile” I had no further
doubts. This is the area that has long
fascinated me and I thought why not give it a
try. And so I did. My reward was a three-month
consultancy contract with the Strategy and
Policy Unit. During this time I have had an
incredible pleasure of working with renowned
professionals of the telecommunications industry
and have utterly enjoyed the creative and
facilitating work climate.
For the most
part, I was contributing to the preparation of
the 2005 ITU Internet Report that is soon going
to come out under the title
“The
Internet of Things”
This work was exciting and gratifying. In
Ericsson it is mostly about contemporary
wireless communication technologies. Here it has
to do more with visions of the future, enabled
by emerging technologies such as RFID
(radio-frequency identification), wireless
sensor networks, nanotechnology and robotics.
The Internet of Things report explains how
ubiquitous networks comprising an ever
multiplying number of wireless sensors and RFID-enabled
things are becoming reality. At a time the
market for traditional wireline and mobile
telecom services is approaching saturation,
communication between “things” opens a new world
of commercial opportunities for vendors,
operators and service providers.
When I
arrived in Geneva I hoped to see how the
International Organization of which I had heard
so much lives and works on a routine, day-to-day
basis. In fact, the program exceeded my
expectations to the level I had never deemed
possible. What I mean is that I have spent three
months researching topics I had had no notion
before. Taking into account the relevance of
these new things to the industry I am working
in, the value is impossible to overestimate. I
do not yet fully appreciate how much I have
gained here, but I have a feeling that it will
be of consequence for years and years to come.
Svetlana
Skvortsova, October 2005 |