The 23rd Telecommunications Forum – TELFOR, the largest telecommunications conference in the country, was opened today in Belgrade. The three-day conference is expected to host over 2,000 visitors, and over 300 papers in the field of telecommunications will be presented.
Opening this year’s TELFOR, State Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić expressed her pleasure that 2015 was a very successful year in Serbia for the field of telecommunications. The key achievement was the successful completion of the process of transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, thus the citizens of Serbia can now watch most of the programming with far better technical quality completely free of charge.
Matić assessed that the rapid start of the utilization of the digital dividend range will provide an additional positive effect to the completion of the digitalization process. She emphasized that in the era of rapid development in mobile communications frequencies have become a precious resource and reminded that last week, the digital dividend range was sold to mobile operators for around EUR 105 million, representing an impetus for the further development of mobile telephony, as well as direct profit for the budget of the Republic of Serbia. “The further development of broadband networks will lead to a reduction in the gap between urban and rural areas and contribute to the further economic growth of Serbia”, said Tatjana Matić.
The State Secretary announced that the Government of Serbia could adopt the draft Law on Information Security next week, representing a very significant step forward in the legal framework regarding the security of data for internet users. This law defines new standards and introduces new institutions, such as a Rapid Response Centre for Cyber-Incidents, providing for the state to be at the level of certain countries where this system is developed to a high degree.
Matić announced that one important activity of the Ministry will be strengthening the Academic Network of Serbia, adding that work is under way on a project that will enable the connectivity of primary and secondary schools to the Academic Network system.
Traditional awards were also presented at the opening of the conference – the “Ilija Stojanović” prize for the best scientific paper and best student papers, and the “Blažo Mirčevski” prize for the best paper by a young author.
Throughout the duration of TELFOR a number of sessions have been organized to discuss and promote relevant issues in the field of telecommunications and information technologies: technical, development, regulatory and economic issues, issues of manufacturing equipment, services, and system functionality.
TELFOR is organized by the Telecommunications Society, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Belgrade and IEEE Communications Society – Serbia and Montenegro Chapter. Several dozen international and local companies are also involved in the implementation of the conference in various ways.
