 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2018 here in Durban, South Africa, where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Mr Bilal Jamoussi, who is Chief of Southern Groups of TSB for ITU. Bilal, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much for having me. Now I'm having you here in the studio because there's a special session called the rise of the MVNOs happening here at ITU Telecom World. Perhaps you could tell us what it's all about, what are MVNOs all about and basically why they're rising and then we'll talk a little bit about the opportunities and the obstacles and challenges. So MVNOs are really in a nutshell leveraging existing infrastructure to provide innovative services and the reason we call it the rise of the MVNOs is that we have seen recently a surge in interest by MVNOs in joining ITU for essentially two main reasons. One is the numbering resources that the ITU offers to allow for MVNOs and operators to interconnect around the world. And the second is the ecosystem that we provide for economic and financial discussions. In terms of the opportunities for MVNOs to partner with operators and various industry verticals, what are some of those that are available? So the ecosystem that the study groups provide allow the MVNOs to have the conversation once in a multilateral setting. Whether the conversation is about the new financial model, regulation, new standards and technical recommendations, the multilateral platform that we provide at an international level allows those MVNOs to have the conversation once and then perhaps apply it multiple times around the world. And so that the ecosystem that the ITU provides in a fairly neutral and open to players around the world, whether they're operators, MVNOs, vendors or regulators from around the world, is quite unique. Perhaps we could talk a little bit about ITU's 901 codes and how they can support IoT and MVNO business. Yeah. Let me first explain what the 901 codes are. Normally if you're in a country, you have a country code. So for example, in Switzerland, it's plus 41, Tunisia, 216. But if you're operating in multiple countries, you get a 901 code because you're not in one jurisdiction, one country, one nation. And these have become very critical for IoT because when IoT devices and the device could be a vehicle, for example, and is connected with a telephone number, a 164 number, instead of having a country code, it will have a 901 code, which allows it to essentially operate in multiple geographies and in multiple countries in a fairly seamless and cost-effective way. And so the ITU is the international regulator to provide those codes because normally when you get a country code, you get it from the, we give the country code to a national regulator from ITU. And then within the country, it's the national regulatory authority that provides the numbers, the phone numbers. But when it's multiple countries, ITU becomes the regulator. And so the TSP director assigns those codes to MVNOs or other operators that are operating cross-jurisdictions. And then those allow the IoT machines, could be vehicles or devices providing international Wi-Fi connectivity, for example, they would get the code from us to enable that new service. How long does that take? I mean, I know, obviously, in terms of launching a satellite, it can take many years. What about getting a 901 code? It takes a few months at least because we're very careful. It's a very scarce resource. It's an international resource. We don't want to make any mistakes in terms of setting precedent of allocating something to an operator where there is a business behind it and a commercial deployment behind it and then realize that perhaps they should not have been allocated. So we have a numbering coordination team chaired by the chair of our study group too and has a team of experts with the chair, including the TSP as an advisor, to look at all the applications, do a thorough analysis, ensure that it's a legitimate request backed by a network in multiple countries. And then if we are satisfied with all the criteria that are documented in our international standard recommendation from the ITU, then the advice goes to the TSP director to allocate the code and then we can allocate the code. So a minimum a couple of months, but it could take longer if there is questions and answers between the committee and the operator. Now IoT, Internet of Things players and MVNs are among the new market segments entering the ITU membership. Perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about the evolution of ITU membership. We have seen recently a great evolution in both the sector members, which are the companies that have access to all the study groups. I think we have 18 new members just in 2018 and as well as associate members, so members that are interested in a single study group. For example, some of the MVNs may be interested in only study group 2 that is doing the numbering. Other MVNs perhaps are interested in the economic and financial and regulatory discussions study group 3. So they become an associate of that study group. But overall this year I think we have more than 24 to 30 new associate members globally and they are in other sectors. For example, in the automotive sector we have new automotive companies that are members of the ITU. We have financial institutions that are members of the ITU. So a lot of the verticals that need ICT as a foundation are joining the ITU because of that intersection of ICT with the verticals. Okay, we're talking about verticals. What is ITU's role in supporting industries such as automotive invention, health and financial services? So in the automotive sector, in addition to our yearly future network car that we do in the Geneva International Car Show, we have a collaboration on ITS standards, a group, a standards group that works on it. And recently one of our study groups launched a vehicular multimedia focus group that brings the vehicle industry and the multimedia industry together because the cars are getting connected and the cars have a lot of ICT embedded in them and some people spend a lot of time in the vehicle. So providing adequate multimedia services in the vehicle is an important aspect and I think what we can bring here is the conversation between the auto regulatory bodies like UN ECE and the telecom regulatory bodies, ITU and the members of the ITU. And that intersection of the stakeholders is very important for being able to deploy and having an enabling environment for deployment. And finally, have you got a message with regards to standards perhaps for the audience here at ITU Telecom World? Standards are critical for global deployment. ITU is really a platform open for business. We can do this very rapidly. In the example of automotive, for example, when we talk about autonomous driving, you might need an MVNO even on a national level because an autonomous car needs to have constant connectivity and knowledge of the map and the changes in the road conditions. And so even within one country, if you have multiple operators, it's easier if you have an MVNO, for example, providing a connectivity for that auto manufacturer. So we see this convergence between other verticals and our space to be quite exciting and bringing new membership, new problems to solve and new standards to develop. Well, Jimmy, thank you very much indeed. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.