Innovation in the Telecom Ecosystem PSG2 10.30-12.00 Umm Al Quwain Innovation is essential to telecommunications. But the incentive for R&D innovation is reducing as returns diminish significantly year-on-year for operators and network equipment vendors. Who will fund the technology innovation of the future to ensure communication is globally accessible? How can startups and large corporations work together to encourage innovation in infrastructure, devices, components and end-user applications? How can governments drive innovation by building the technical, organizational, economic and social infrastructure, and providing policy to support firms and entrepreneurs? How can innovation in business models help companies restructure during times of transition? From Barter to Ubiquitous Payment Solutions PSG3 10.30-12.00 Ras Al Khaimah Mobile payments, and mobile money in particular, are very much in fashion. The market is continuously clamouring for such solutions, as shown by the constant appearance of supposedly new solutions. Yet each time a solution appears the response is one of disappointment. No solution, it seems, has yet been able to meet all of the market’s needs. Instead they merely solve a small subset of those needs. What the market needs is a ubiquitous solution, one where all payment methods converge into a single system. Instead the market is becoming ever more populated with partial solutions. Perhaps a new approach is needed, one that focuses on the nature of money and the requirements that money must meet. This session will examine whether this approach may bring an end to the fragmentation within the market, and ask if a truly ubiquitous payment solution is possible. panel sesions 47