 We're here at Wicked 2012 in Dubai in the UAE and I'm very pleased to be joined by Paul Bouda who is independent telecommunications analyst for Boudicom. Paul, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. Thank you for inviting me, Max. We're now well and truly into the conference. What in your opinion are presenting themselves as the core issues here? I think what we've seen is that there's quite a conciliatory approach towards the whole issue and people are understanding and splitting the issues that have to do with this conference and other issues that are around as well. So that's really good to see. So now we can concentrate on the real issues. And one of the biggest issues of course is that we need to connect the whole world towards telecommunications internet broadband. So the key issue is how are we going to do that? And that is a real problematic issue because on one side the old way of doing telecommunications is just start adding fees on top of things and then that generates a fund or whatever people can do with that. That's no longer the world that we are living in. Telecommunications has become an infrastructure element and on top of that are the services. So how are we going to manage that? What are the sort of charging mechanisms in that sort of a situation of how you're going to create the funds, the investments to make this happen for the whole world? So are the charging mechanisms the key to the success of work? Yeah, the charging mechanisms as such are the key but not in the old way. The old way, as I mentioned, is just using it as a sort of a text. The reality nowadays is that the benefits of telecommunications are on top of the network. It are the social and economic benefits, health care, education, the digital economy, business, new jobs, the green economy, all of that is part of it. That's what countries should concentrate on. So if you have the best possible infrastructure then you actually start attracting these services. You obviously also started attracting investments but you should shift the policies and the regulations from infrastructure to services and policies directed towards the social and economic benefits of the telecommunications infrastructure. So it looks like one of the core issues is the structure of the industry. That's absolutely the core issue because the core issue of the structure of the industry is that it's a vertically integrated business. On one side it's infrastructure and services. And what you need to do is have business models that are separate. They're separate business models for the infrastructure and investment models and separate models for the services, the retail sort of elements to it. If you actually start looking at the infrastructure model as national infrastructure and you agree that the benefits are social and economic, then you actually start looking at this needs to be a combined effort of the government and the industry in how to create the best possible infrastructure. This is of national interest. It is not a telecommunications infrastructure. It has to be treated as a utility. Once you start doing that, you start attracting investments. You see that already happening in Europe where the construction companies call them like that in the telecommunications are attracting investments that are enabling fiber to the home networks, broadband networks to be established all over the world. So the key issue is for government starting to understand that this is not about taxing the infrastructure but building new business opportunities on top of the infrastructure. And finally, I'd like to ask you, how can Wicked bridge the gap between the connected and the unconnected, do you think? I think if you look at the ITRs, the International Telecommunications Regulations, they have served us very well. You know, that's why we have the infrastructure that we have it now. So I don't think changing them massively is going to help. Fine-tuning them, yes. And then actually start looking at how can the ITRs help the other countries that are not yet connected or people that are not yet connected. It's not just developing world. It is within companies, regional areas, etc. How can you actually start creating accessibility and interoperability towards the rest of the world? Help the rest of the world understanding the social and economic benefits. The United Nations Broadband Commission is doing things like that. That are the sort of things how we can assist the other part of the world that's not yet connected to create the right environment for investments to help. So I think the ITRs, SDR, are a good starting point. They don't need to be changed and they can be used to create that broader environment that we all need to get the whole connected world. Paul Witte, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. My pleasure, Max.