Icasa chairperson Paris Mashile will address the Mobility 2006 conference on September 14 on the complexities of regulating costs for telecommunications in South Africa.The conference will be hosted by World Wide Worx to release the findings of its annual research into the impact of mobile and wireless technologies, and to present a vision for the mobile future in South Africa. It will include presentations by Sajeed Sacranie, CEO of Virgin Mobile South Africa, Len Pienaar, CEO of First National Bank (FNB) Mobile and Transact Solutions, and Leon Perlman, chairman of the Wireless Application Service Providers Association.

Mashile’s presentation will provide insights into Icasa’s strategic role in order to clarify what it can and cannot do in changing the telecommunications landscape.

“The critical issue for Icasa is not cost, but competitiveness,” says Mashile. “It is important that we create a level playing field while maintaining the viability of the industry.”

Sajeed Sacranie will tackle the controversial topic of “Smoke and mirrors in our industry”, showing how the complexity of cellular offerings camouflages the extent to which users of mobile technologies are receiving a raw deal.

Len Pienaar will discuss the needs and the challenges of cellphone banking in South Africa, how those challenges are being met now and how they will be met in the future.

World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck will present the core findings of the SME and corporate phases of Mobility 2006, based on interviews with 1 100 small and medium businesses and 100 large corporations.

Peter Searll, head of Dashboard Fast Forward Research, who led the consumer phase of the Mobility 2006 research project, will reveal the face of the South African cellular user, showing how the research identifies “technology types” among SA consumers.

Elia Tsouros, Business Development Executive for Verizon Business SA, will discuss the role of data in transforming communications in South Africa, offering a vision for the future of communications beyond voice.

Leon Perlman will extend the topic of mobile challenges into the mobile commerce arena, looking at the phone-based opportunities that the cellular explosion offers to entrepreneurs in South Africa.

For more information on the event, visit www.mobileza.com

For further background information, please contact:

• Celeste Whitaker, Fizz Marketing, on (011) 467-9332 or by e-mail on celeste@fizzmarketing.co.za
• Anneke Groenewald, First National Bank, on (011) 352 3549 or e-mail ACGroenewald@fnb.co.za
• Nicholas Maweni, Virgin Mobile, on (011) 676-5000 or email Nicholas.Maweni@virginmobile.co.za
• Vinny Perumal, Verizon Business, on (011) 235-6598 or email vinny.perumal@za.verizonbusiness.com
• Arthur Goldstuck, World Wide Worx, on (011) 782-7003 or e-mail arthurg@internet.org.za