Carrier business success depends on having an optimum ROI, and revenues will grow rapidly when innovative residential and business services are offered.

To increase end-customer bandwidth, VDSL deployments have started in Europe, offering broadband capacity of up to 100 Mbps. Carriers are also looking for new ways to expand last-mile capacities and, at the same time, migrating their access infrastructure to the optical access. The question is which type of last-mile infrastructure-DSL or PON-fits best to the respective network environment. Issues concerning reuse of existing infrastructure, regulatory requirements, distances of building or curb to the central office, bandwidth per subscriber, etc., have to be settled to find the optimum last-mile access solution.

Stephan Neidlinger Vice President, Business Management PON Nokia Siemens Networks

From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Neidlinger was a member of Siemens' fixed networks business unit, responsible for next-generation transport networks and sales in Germany. Prior to this, he was responsible for the business and product line management optical networks group. He is also an author and co-author of a number of articles and papers for international journals and conferences.

Gerlinde Bedö Director of Solutions Marketing, Fixed Network Department Nokia Siemens Networks

Ms. Bedö is performing techno-economic analyses of FTTx options, including all components (infrastructure and equipment), and doing marketing support for new value-add services on top of the broadband access. Previously, she was working in the business development of the transmission department. Ms. Bedö has a degree in electrical engineering.

Don Clarke Head, VDSL Development BT Wholesale

Mr. Clarke is responsible for directing the next-generation access technology program for BT's 21st Century Network (21CN). This program is focused on FTTP-GPON and FTTC-VDSL. Previously, he was head of the VDSL and passive optical networks groups at BT Laboratories. He was chairman of the FSAN VDSL Working Group of Carriers, which brokered the key standards agreements on VDSL, and was co-founder, chairman, and technical director of the Full Service-VDSL (FS-VDSL) Committee.

Wolfgang Fischer Business Development, Service Provider Infrastructure Solutions Cisco Europe

Mr. Fischer is responsible for business development of service provider infrastructure solutions for Cisco Europe. His main focus areas are broadband access and aggregation technologies and solutions, which covers fiber, copper, and wireless access technologies, including their respective service delivery architectures. Mr. Fischer is also the chairman of the Architecture and Technology Committee in the FTTH Council Europe. He has more than 20 years of experience in service provider networking solutions covering ISDN protocols, ATM systems and network architectures, broadband access, and voice, traffic, and queuing theory.

Bob Sinclair Senior Engineer and Access Architect TELUS Communications

Mr. Sinclair deals with the architecture of all wired access networks at TELUS, including technology choices, field testing, performance modeling, and the high-level aspects of implementation. He has extensive experience in all aspects of access networks and has a degree in electrical engineering.