Voice&Data to host the 22nd Telecom Leadership Forum on 19 April

India’s oldest and leading communication magazine, Voice&Data, will be organising the 22nd edition of its flagship "Telecom Leadership Forum" (TLF) on 19th April 2023 at the Shangri-La, New Delhi. The forum will be a platform for industry leaders to discuss the developments in the communication sector, with a focus on broadband, bandwidth, spectrum, security, 5G infrastructure, edge computing, sensor-based ecosystem, satellite and M2M communication, and Industry 4.0.

The TLF will deliberate on the evolving trends in the communication and connectivity space and the Future of the Mobile Economy.

With the emergence of new digital technologies and the 5G standards, the world is going through a major transformation in how businesses and individuals communicate, connect, and use digital infrastructure. The forum will host industry leaders, domain experts, policymakers, technologists, influencers, and academia to discuss the evolving trends in the communication and connectivity space and the Future of the Mobile Economy.

The conference will be attended by over 200+ technology and business decision-makers and policymakers across telecommunication, enterprise, start-ups, academia, and the influencer ecosystem. The V&D Telecom Leadership Award for 2022 and the V&D Excellence Awards will also be presented at the forum.

The Telecom Person of the Awards for 2022 will be conferred upon the enablers of Made in India 4G Stack, jointly to TCS, C-DOT, Tejas Networks, and BSNL. The Pathbreaker of the Year will be given to Made in India social media platform Koo while the Lifetime Achievement Award will be conferred upon former NHA CEO Dr. RS Sharma. The awards have been decided by a Jury comprising telecom industry veterans and experts. The Jury process was chaired by Anshu Prakash, former Telecom Secretary, Government of India.

The V&D Telecom Leadership Award for 2022 and the V&D Excellence Awards will be presented at the 22nd V&D Telecom Leadership Forum.

The V&D Excellence Award is an industry recognition based on nomination and through an internal evaluation process of the V&D team. The award will be presented to 19 companies for their initiatives and excellence in different aspects of business, including processes, infrastructure, networking, customer service, security, skilling, enterprise solutions, and innovation.

Key speakers at the TLF include Uma Shanker Pandey, Member (Services), Department of Telecom, Government of India; Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; Pravin Kumar Purwar, CMD, BSNL; Dr. RK Upadhyay, CEO, C-DOT; Shivaji Chatterjee, Executive Vice President, Enterprise and Government Business Hughes Communications India; Prateek Pashine, President-Enterprise Business, Reliance Jio; Arun Karna, Managing Director & CEO, AT&T India; Himanshu Gupta, Country Manager - Telecom, Media & Entertainment (CME), HPE; Anil Jain, CEO, NIXI; P Balaji, Chief Regulatory & Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea; Pankaj Kitchlu, Systems Engineering Director, Juniper Networks; and Aveek Roy, Vice President of International Sales - IMEA, Sangoma.

The list also includes Dharmender Khajuria, National head, Network Partnership, Airtel; Sheena Joseph, National Head-Customer, Enterprise Business, Vi; Rashim Kapoor, Head Core and Hub CTO, Airtel; Lt Gen Dr. SP Kochar, Director-General, COAI; Lt. General AK Bhatt (Retd), Director General, ISpA; Tilak Raj Dua, Director General, DIPA; Arvind Bali, CEO, TSSC; Prof NK Goyal, President, CMAI Association of India & Chairman Emeritus, TEMA; Rajat Mukarji, Director-General, BIF;Arpita Paul - Managing Director— Communications, Media & Technology, Accenture India; Aditya Khaitan, Partner, Deloitte India; Jaideep Ghosh, COO, ShardulAmarchandMangaldas& Co;Dr. SN Gupta, Chairman of the Board, Bluetown India & BIMSTEC, South Asia; Umang Das, Chairman, FIIF & Advisor, RANext; and Ashish Garg, Sr Manager – Spectrum & Policy, South Asia & APAC, GSMA

The TLF is powered by HPE and PC Solutions, and supported by Gold Partners Juniper Networks and Sangoma, Telecom partner Vodafone Idea Limited, Digital Partner NIXI, Connectivity Partner AT&T Business, Academia Partner Apeejay Education, Research Partner CyberMedia Research, and Media Partner Dataquest. It is also supported by Broadband India Forum, CMAI, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association, Indian Space Association, TEMA, and Telecom Sector Skill Council of India.