GSMA Board names the board for next two years — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{More than two billon customers} GSMA Board names the board for next two years

3 Dec 2006 at 14:40 GMT Timo Poropudas

Cable & Wireless International, MTN, Softbank and Telekom Austria have all joined the board of the GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile phone operators. The new board, which will serve a two-year term from January 2007.

Senior representatives from the world’s top mobile phone operators, including China Mobile, Orascom, Telefonica and Vodafone, are also among those on the 25-strong GSMA board.

“The role of the GSMA is expanding as the mobile industry matures into one of the most important and influential sectors of the global economy,” said Craig Ehrlich, chairman of the GSMA.

“We plan to maintain that expansion to ensure the GSMA continues to play a leading role in strategic, technical and public policy matters of importance to the operator community. At the same time, a key consideration for the new board will be prioritizing the many calls on the Association’s time and resources.”

GSMA board members are typically CEOs or board-level representatives of mobile operator groups. Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA and member of the board, added: “I am extremely pleased with the composition of the new board, which is well-placed to ensure that the Association continues to make a major contribution to the development and growth of the mobile ecosystem to the benefit of both end-users and the industry itself.”

Those appointed to serve for a two-year term from January 1, 2007 are:

Bharti Sunil – Bharti Mittal
Cable & Wireless International – Harris Jones
Cingular William W. Hague
China Mobile – Lu Xiangdong
China Unicom – Zhang Fan
GSM Association – Rob Conway
GSMA EMC (Telenor) – Stein Hansen
Hutchison – Craig Ehrlich
KTF – Young-Chu Cho
Mobilkom Austria – Group Boris Nemsic
MTN Phuthuma – F Nhleko
NTT DoCoMo – Takanori Utano
Orange – To be confirmed
Orascom – Naguib Sawiris
SFR – Frank Esser
Singtel – Allen Lew
Smart – Napoleon Nazareno
Softbank – Tetsuzo Matsumoto
Telecom – Italia Mobile Mauro Sentinelli
Telefonica – David Williams
Telenor Arve Johansen
T-Mobile Matthias Schröter
Turkcell Muzaffer Akpinar
Vimpelcom Alexander Izosimov
Vodafone – Alan Harper

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 215 countries of the world. In addition, more than 180 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association’s initiatives as key partners.

The Association’s members serve more than two billion customers - 82% of the world’s mobile phone users.