The Telecommunications Regulation Authority (TRA) participation in the GITEX technology week held in Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre, during 9-13 October, 2011 was a significant success. The 2011 version witnessed a wide participation of key ICT industry local, regional and international entities and authorities, with about 3500 local and international companies, as well as 136,000 industry experts and professionals.

Commenting on the TRA participation, H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA Director General said: “we are satisfied about our participation in GITEX 2011. During the week we discussed several topics and shared with participants what we do in order to keep the UAE ICT sector at high levels of development and leadership. The responses on our participating were encouraging, as participants commended the advancement achieved by our ICT sector. The number of visits to our stand and the book of visitor undoubtedly give a clear clue of the attraction our stand had during this event.”

“GITEX 2011 was beneficial to us, as we had the chance to see others’ experiences which is of course a very important element when organizing such events. Our participation for this year was balanced as it covered topics ranging from high-tech issues such as the gTLD program, and reaching to the humanitarian aspect of the TRA’s work reflected in its social responsibility in the “echo of Silence” project or in our environmental commitments. The wide range of topics we prepared for GITEX 2011 was unprecedented among other participants; hence, it reaffirmed our ability of organizing such events, and our regional leadership in the ICT sector.” Al Ghanim added.

The first day of GITEX week, witnessed shedding light on several topics such as the National Emergency Plan and its goals to guarantee the continuation of telecom sector services during emergency cases; the regular Radiation Study done by the TRA to ensure that the levels of radiation from telecom operators’ equipment are minimal and safe; the mobile benchmarking within the Telecom sector which is considered to be a policy that drives TRA to encourage the competition among operators in the UAE; Mobile spam and means to organize and control them; the mobile site sharing and measures that the TRA is taking to sensor sharing activities among licensees; the “Echo of Silence” project which is a TRA initiative aiming to achieve a wider participation from the people with special needs and integrate them in within the community; and an overview on TRA’s Green ICT Practices.

An agreement between TRA, represented by the .ae Domain Administration (.aeDA), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was signed. The agreement states that both sides will work together to maintain the Domain Name System (DNS) for the (.ae) & ( .امارات ) top level domains. press conference was held on the second day of GITEX 2011, in which H.E. Al Ghanim discussed the Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) with the audience. He shed light on few technical aspects of the programme, its impacts on the way how the internet will be functioning and registration steps for ccTLD, and other related points. Also, a press conference was held regarding the aeCERT and EC-Council on organizing the CyberLampics competition. The conference shed light on the importance of such activities in exploring new talents and ideas in the ICT sector.

The third day of GITEX Technology Week 2011 witnessed an active participation from TRA represented by the aeCERT that announced the launch of a mobile application developed by it, and provided detailed information about aeCERT services, activities, periodical security reports and security practices; the launch of the aeCERT’s new website, which has been developed in order to be more interactive, attractive, and to provide more features and services to meet the TRA's requirements; and the collaborative platform that connects all information security professionals through the internet in a virtual environment allowing exchange of files, messages and responding to incidents.

On the fourth day, presentations were displayed on topics such as spectrum monitoring which is a program aiming at facilitating planning and operation management, eliminating and minimizing harmful interferences as much as possible; Type Approval which is a requirement for Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (RTTE) to comply with specific technical equipment before it can be supplied in the UAE; and the public awareness campaign related to the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) Numbers in the UAE.

Another press conference was also held by H.E. Director General about the TRUSTae initiative aiming at boosting confidence in the electronic commerce environment in the UAE. Al Ghanim shared with the audience the goals of this initiative in promoting interactive financial and governmental services through the internet.