A recurring feature of the history of broadband has been the claim "we have more than enough bandwidth now; services are the only issue." Services are indeed the ultimate user need, but while following the Moore's Law of bandwidth (56K dial-up; ISDN; 0.5 Mbps downloads; 10 Mbps, and now 100 Mbps access), it has become clear that more bandwidth is the key to new and better services. Projects in the European Union Research Programmes have been strong drivers of this process. This session presents some of the latest results on the path toward "Gigabit/s-to-the-User," new services and applications.

Andrew Houghton Deputy Head of Unit, Directorate-General Information Society and Media: Future Networks European Commission

Mr. Houghton is currently responsible for several projects of the Information Society Technologies (IST) FP6 Research Program, in the strategic objective "Mobile and Wireless Beyond 3G," and projects in the "Network of the Future" objective of the FP7 ICT Programme. He joined the European Commission in 1992, as a project officer, initially in the area of optical networks and subsequently in the area of "Broadband for All." Previously, he was with BT Research Labs and STC/Northern Telecom Optoelectronics, where he was involved in engineering and production of devices for optical communications systems.

Jean-Philippe Javaudin Project Manager France Telecom - Orange

Since January 2008 Mr. Javaudin has been the coordinator of the OMEGA ICT FP7 project as well as a research engineer. His main topic of interest is multi-carrier modulation such as conventional OFDM and pulse-shaped OFDM (e.g., IOTA-OFDM). From 2004 to 2007 Mr. Javaudin contributed to the WINNER FP6 project and was responsible on a work package on inter-cell issues. He received an engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) in 2001.

David Kennedy Director Eurescom

Mr. Kennedy is leading a number of pan-European discussions on the future Internet and how Europe can scale up its collaborative efforts to achieve the necessary momentum for European industry to be competitive in the future Internet marketplace. From his background in network planning with the Irish telco Eircom to a period working with Ericsson, he has spent more than 20 years working in innovative projects in the wider telecommunications sector. Mr. Kennedy's pragmatic approach to innovation has allowed him to investigate the new opportunities with a clear understanding of the difficulties of large-scale implementation, operational responsibilities, and commercial necessities.

Mikhail Popov Project Manager ACREO

Dr. Popov is active in research and development for next-generation access and in-building networks with the focus on using optical fiber. His research interests also include Ethernet, ASON/GMPLS, and general data and control plane issues in networks. Dr. Popov has authored and co-authored more than 40 papers on electromagnetic theory and optical communications. He is the coordinator for the EU-funded large-scale integrating project Architectures for Flexible Photonic Home and Access Networks (ALPHA). He received a M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering in 1995 from the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University and a Ph.D. degree in electromagnetic theory in 2002 from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Peter Vetter Principal Research Engineer Alcatel-Lucent

Dr. Vetter has initiated and managed activities in various European research projects (e.g., Race HIBITS, Brite Euram MIFAD, Acts PLATO, Acts PLANET, Acts PELICAN, IST GIANT). From 2004 to 2008 he was project leader for the European IST MUSE Project. Dr. Vetter is a distinguished member of the Alcatel-Lucent Technical Academy and has authored or co-authored more than 55 international papers. After a post-doctoral fellowship in Japan, he joined the research center of Alcatel in Antwerp in 1993, where he worked on optical interconnections, optical access, and access platforms. Dr. Vetter received a physics engineering degree from Ghent University in 1986 and a Ph.D. in 1991.