Apple's revenue sharing agreements with carriers worldwide mark a paradigm shift in the wireless ecosystem. Exclusive carriage deals for handsets have been around for a long time, but Apple is one of the first handset makers to demand a revenue sharing agreement with carriers that offer its device. And the carriers agreed. Now Google has launched its open source platform, called Android, which looks to open up the mobile device to myriad third party applications. So what does the new paradigm look like? Who has the power? Who benefits from this new ecosystem and who are the losers?

The iPhone clearly brought converged mobile devices back into the limelight. But do consumers really want one device that plays multiple roles? The Yankee Group consumer study of 2007 indicated that only 17.4 percent of respondents wanted to replace their digital audio players with a mobile phone. Will converged devices proliferate or will consumers instead continue to purchase multiple devices for different uses?

India, China and other emerging markets have been hot on the wireless industry radar screen for the past few years. Are these still the hot growth markets? What new areas are ripe for wireless development? What are the pros and cons of doing business in these emerging markets?

Many companies and industry pundits talk about mobile advertising and its great potential but few discuss the realities. This panel will focus on mobile advertising campaigns that have worked. What can we learn from the success stories? What role will operators play in the success of mobile advertising campaigns?

Consumer location-based services are no longer the stuff of pure fantasy: Most carriers have deployed GPS-based navigations services and family finder services. Some have even begun to launch buddy finder services. Now that the commercial viability of LBS applications is on more solid ground, which applications will drive the sector moving forward? The LBS sector is consolidating—and fast. What will this ecosystem look like in the years ahead and how will further consolidation change the sector?

As the mobile phone evolves into a handheld computing device, many consumers and device makers are advocating an open operating system environment. What are the pros and cons of open vs closed handheld operating systems? What does Google’s Android operating system mean for the industry? What does a change from closed to open mean for developers?

The mobile commerce space has grown up. For one, it is now known as the mobile financial services industry and wireless carriers, banks and credit card companies are well aware of the opportunity it presents. Mobile banking services are widely deployed throughout the U.S. and Europe and mobile payments systems are slowly rolling out across the world as well. The major market barrier for these services, however, is figuring out whether the banks, the carriers or the credit card companies control the user’s account. How can the rest of the MFS industry convince these three parties to work together? And how viable is an NFC-enabled solution?

Is advertiser support the key to mobile video adoption? Will people pay to watch, or is ad-supported free content the only model that will gain traction with subscribers?

Content producers like MTV and Vuguru (the Michael Eisner-led multi-platform studio) are embracing mobile to launch short-form, multi-episode soap operas--a serialized model not dissimilar from how another wireless medium, radio, attracted listeners, not coincidentally with titles prominently featuring the advertiser's brand, which enabled a minimum of commercial interruptions. The question--are there lessons to be learned from the evolution of radio, broadcast TV and cable, or does following the path blazed by previous media diminish what is unique about the mobile platform?

Now that the FCC's 700 MHz spectrum auction is over and the winners have been revealed, what does it mean for the industry? Will the market drive open access or will the FCC requirement? How will the wireless ecosystem change to accommodate open access?

When it comes to deploying 4G technologies, WiMAX and LTE seem to be leading the race. What are the pros and cons of deploying WiMAX vs. LTE? What is the timeline for these 4G technologies to be deployed? What is the business case for upgrading to WiMAX or LTE?

The 802.11n Wi-Fi specification supports better throughput and higher code rates than its predecessors, making applications such as mobile VOIP and streaming video and music a reality. Another benefit of 802.11n is the ability for enterprises to use network-attached storage for data backup. NAS is extremely popular with SMEs as a way to safeguard their records and other critical information.

This Webinar will explore the pros and cons of 802.11n and talk about how enterprises can exploit the benefits of this technology without impacting existing network technology. Possible speakers: Stan Schatt at ABI Research.

Although muni-WiFi is a reality in almost 400 cities nationwide, many proponents of these networks are rethinking their strategy. Earthlink recently announced that it may get out of the Muni-WiFi business altogether and several municipalities have cancelled planned projects. The problems: Usage is low in many cases, scalability has been a challenge, devices and capabilities have been found to be wanting and business models promising free community access have proven not to be viable. Where is muni-WiFi headed? Can this model survive?

Voice and video are going to roam across a wide range of mediums, ranging from big bandwidth, HD quality audio and 1080i video to limited wireless connectivity and the small screen of a mobile handset. Users want to be able to look at everything anywhere, so service providers need to be able to translate between audio and video formats across multiple platforms.

YouTube is nice if you have less than 10 minutes of video -what do you do if you want to do more? Or to distribute video in real-time? What options do content delivery networks (CDNs) offer for commercial distribution of user-generated and corporate video?

In the very near future, anyone will be able to capture video with their cell phone or a broadband-enabled camcorder and then beam that video directly to a server for storage and/or live distribution on the fly. This "revolution of convenience" will impact everything from real-time news reporting to the care and distribution of a family's home movies.

As media companies and start ups position themselves to exploit the surging demand for online rich media, many are seeking industrial strength delivery which will maximize end users service quality. Technologies to deliver video are rapidly changing. The challenge is to pick an affordable solution which can scale, is future proof and offer the flexibility business needs as firms continue to test different business models. This webinar will discuss and answer what is considered best practice for video hosting and delivery. Included will be consideration whether to stream, progressive download or exploit the efficiencies of P2P, and if there are any hybrid solutions. Formats remain a vexed issue and we will study the latest technologies and their relative strengths, including the H.264 compression standard. From the business perspective customers want to know what they get for their money and we will review current market place CDN prices as well as offering a check list when comparing CDN carriers. Finally we will review what other media companies are doing as an overview of the competitor landscape in the video delivery space.

IPTV advertising promises the perfect solution for advertisers and service providers: personalized ads with no wastage and premium rates. Some have estimated targeted and addressable advertising offers the potential to increase advertising revenue per viewer by a factor of over 20 times. This is why targeted advertising may become the reason for rapid deployment of IPTV. Myth or reality? What role will ad insertion technologies play? What have we learnt so far and what does the future promise.

A take on where each major market is with a special focus on Europe. With IPTV expected to grow four fold over the next four years, which markets are expected to show best growth? What regulatory and competition impediments exist in the major Asian, European and American markets, and who are the players leading the charge? Can any lessons learned be translated from one country to another? Where is web video having the most impact?

Which box will win the race to be the consumers device of choice for connecting TV’s to the internet. With 160 million expected to connect their TV to the internet over the next five years the race is on to be the home entertainment hub. What will win? Game consoles, set top box’s or Media PC’s? And as the internet and consumer electronics world’s come together, which company will have their brand on the machine and the software inside? Microsoft, Apple, Google, Sony, Samsung or will it be a TiVO like, new player who gets the box just right and leaves the competition for dead ? Should carriers partner with multiple set-top firms? What role should they play in developing highly-integrated Web TV/Telco TV menus?

Internet video bypasses the traditional distributors of content – broadcasters, cable and satellite operators – and creates a direct relationship between content creator and user. This changes the media business model and creates a new value chain. Who makes money and how in this new game? Which companies are best positioned to exploit the boom in video services and what are the capabilities firms who want to profit in this new environment will need?

IPTV may be the enabling service which underwrites the roll out of super fast broadband but what are the new high access services which telcos can offer and which offer the most return? Security, home management, universal messaging, health, education? What skills and technologies are required to exploit the opportunities?

IP is the future of business networking, but what kinds of business customers are ready for it, and how can IP capabilities be packaged in a unified communications offering that makes sense for them. Can unified communications give carriers the edge in the hotly-competitive SMB market?

As voice applications rollout on numerous web sites and devices what does the new voice landscape look like as users and developers exploit the true flexibility of VoIP and its associated technologies. Can voice still be a revenue-generating service? Is the marriage of social networks and VoIP a lasting one and what can the telecom industry learn from it? Multi-Party conversations, always on conferencing, video calling are just three of the new applications expected to revolutionize the voice communications field.

While VoIP still remains one of the most interesting shifts in business telephony, 2008 is set to see great advances for the enterprise, particularly around fixed-mobile convergence and unified communications. We'll address how these technologies could improve your company's communications and what it takes to make them a reality.

Unified communication sounds like a wonderful idea, but what changes have to be made to the corporate network in order to support it? What will the bandwidth requirements be? Will there be additional security requirements? Can I get around some of the capital equipment costs by outsourcing UC services?

Dual-mode phones, one-number dialing, and extending PBX functionality to the mobile phone have all been functions traditionally attributed to FMC, but enterprises now want to extend all of their communications functions - both voice and data - to their mobile workers, including presence, Instant Messaging, and visual voice mail. In other words, they want to unify mobile phones with the rest of the enterprise's communications systems.

Adding video to existing unified communications applications and being able to "mash up" corporate applications using UC APIs and toolkits promises to improve the customer experience and cut down on business process "silos" to rapidly cut down on the time it takes to take orders and solve problems.

3G applications are increasing traffic and bandwidth. Most U.S. operators have traditionally relied upon T1s for backhaul, but that is changing. How does a wireless operator leverage its existing backhaul infrastructure and keep costs in check?

Peer-to-peer traffic delays have become a source of great controversy, but also reflect the difficulty of managing broadband networks as social networking and peer-to-peer services change the way networks are used. How can broadband carriers effectively manage changing traffic patterns without alienating customers? Can tiered data rate packages, made more attractive with higher upstream bandwidth capabilities, help the situation?

As pure access line revenue declines and competition increases, service providers need to establish new revenue sources and new ways to strengthen relationships with enterprise customers. Managed security services offer an opportunity to do both, allowing telcos to leverage their reputations for network reliability into new premium, profit-making services that also help them establish new levels of trust with corporate clients. To realize the benefits, carriers need to first ensure the security of their own networks, and then create strategies and portfolios of security services that give enterprises continually improving protection from a constantly-evolving array of security threats.

Testing is only one part of a service lifecycle. Companies and service providers have to do more than simply make sure "it" (voice, networking, applications) works when it is turned on, but "it" continues to work effectively during the course of the business day. Service assurance is the new testing and applications are the new voice.

Quality of Service objectively monitors performance based upon rigid criteria. Quality of Experience is a more nebulous, but ultimately more important measure of the customer's satisfaction. QoS may be met according to network engineering guidelines but if the customer isn't happy with his experiences during a service glitch or interruption, he may choose to take his business somewhere else.

Troubleshooting problems is easy if you own all the parts from the networking core down to the end of the network - but it hardly works that way. End users - corporate and consumer - start to add their own devices picked up down at the local Big Box outlet, including computers, WiFi access points, travel routers, and yes, even an iPhone or two. How does a corporate networking support group track down trouble when the CEO's iPhone can't access POP mail? How can a service provider nail down a problem between its furnished CPE and the customer's discount router?

Service Creation Environments (SCEs) and mashups provide the promise of building and turning up new revenue-generating applications in a matter of weeks and days rather than months and years. Case studies on how SCEs and mashups speed up development times and more quickly add revenues to the bottom line. We also examine the growing market for third-party applications developed in SCEs.

Web 2.0 and Telco 2.0 are all the rage, but can splicing together different applications quickly deliver realistic and reliable results? Are the rough edges of mash up applications too crude or is a mash up "good enough" for daily use in a business environment? What tools are available for creating mashups in existing softswitch environments?

One of the advantages of IMS is the new voice applications that are enabled such as VOIP, PTT and videosharing. Will IMS jumpstart these services or will the demand for these services prompt carriers to deploy IMS? What other "killer" applications are enabled by deploying IMS?

Developers and companies are using Asterisk as more than "just" an IP PBX, building upon the open source code to construct their own sophisticated applications, including voice mail, call centers, and even games while on hold. A discussion of the strengths of using Asterisk for advanced telephone applications.

While Asterisk gets all the glory as "The" open source telephony platform, a number of other companies offer open source solutions as well. A review of everything but Asterisk in the telephony world.

Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint have announced and offer open network access; Amazon's Kindle is a leading example of Sprint's commitment to an open CDMA network and has promised even more great things with its WiMAX network. How can developers and businesses take advantage of Verizon's and Sprint's open networks.

IP PBX appliances for the SMB are available from a variety of vendors, ranging from Digium's SwitchVOX (available through third-party resellers) to a solution from Fonality available through Dell's catalog. What should buyers and resellers look for when they consider purchasing an off-the-shelf IP PBX solution?

Resellers and OEMs can now customize a hardware solution capability of scaling from a 2U "edge" device to a cabinet-sized, carrier-grade device complete with redundant power supplies and blades. What hardware solutions are available to create the latest in customized and scalable boxes? Does MicroTCA provide a way to give enterprise customers carrier-grade reliability in the IT closet?

With mobile operators touting a more open environment for applications and devices, the role of BREW in the mobile application environment will evolve. What is the future of BREW? How is it changing to accommodate the mobile content ecosystem? How are developers adjusting to the changes?

Get the latest on mobile enterprise and entertainment news from the show.

FierceMarkets can put together post-show "roundtable" Webinars for any of the tradeshows we cover featuring top industry players and thought leaders. We ask questions like, What were the top trends, topics, and take-aways from the show? What are the industry themes moving forward? These are very well-attended.

With the success of social networks and Web-based video, telcos are under pressure to develop a new model of service creation, packaging and delivery that harnesses the best of Web 2.0 influences to enhance revenue without threatening their network control and management. Service-oriented architectures can help them accomplish this, but SOA also can be confusing and expensive if they don't know where to start. This webinar will show telcos how, when and where to invest in SOA products and practices to help them effectively achieve the Telco 2.0 model.

According to CTIA more than 5 billion kWh are consumed annually by the U.S. wireless industry resulting in the release of nearly 4 million tons of CO2 greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. What can operators do to reduce their power consumption? Innovative vendors are coming up with solutions, including base stations that are powered by solar energy and back up power solutions that are more efficient and less wasteful. This Webinar will focus on some of these solutions and how operators can quickly and cost effectively implement changes to their network.

A burst of licensing deals and buyouts has provided venture capital groups with new ways to capitalize on their biotech investments. These trends have helped push investing to record levels and have also begun to make it harder to find the kind of late-stage development programs that venture capitalists have been eager to back. That has helped create new opportunities for biotech companies at an earlier stage of development and has helped increase the amount of money on tap for research activities.

Topics covered will include:

• What phases of development are attracting the most attention
• The diseases and technologies garnering the most investment
• Investing with academic institutions
• Preclinical opportunities for VC

Personalized medicine aims to achieve the best possible medical outcomes by tailoring treatment to a patient's own particular genetic profile. By using the personalized approach to medicine, the industry will eventually be able to abandon the hit-and-miss approach to drugs that has characterized prescribing habits for decades. Molecular diagnostics will help drug companies select patients more likely to respond positively to a therapy in clinical development, improving their chances of an approval. In this webinar, experts will evaluate the way that genetic testing is revolutionizing the development process and its impact on patient selection.

Topics covered will include:

• Faster drug development
• More drugs approved for specific patient populations
• Disease prevention and early detection
• Personalized therapies - Diagnostic tests paired with drugs
• Overcoming barriers to personalized medicine

Always anxious to lower R&D costs and expand their pool of scientific and development talent, developers have been rapidly increasing the amount of discovery work they do in China. In some cases they are teaming up with existing Chinese labs. In other cases biotech companies are establishing their own Chinese research arms. And large, treatment-naive patient populations make China an attractive alternative to the U.S. and Europe for an industry that is constantly seeking the best patient groups for a trial. In this webinar, a panel of experts on China's biotech business will discuss the pros and cons of doing business in the country.

Topics covered will include:

• Concerns about IP rights, local corruption and regulatory barriers
• Overcoming cultural barriers
• The benefits of faster recruitment, larger patient pools and treatment naïve subjects.
• Theraputic areas that benefit the most from overseas patient populations, such as cancer and diabetes

2008 is set to be a huge year for open platforms in the mobile world--from Google's Android to Verizon's open network initiative, the mobile industry is on the cusp of a sea change. For the enterprise, however, openness is a two-edged sword: while it allows for easier application development, it also brings a number of security concerns to the table. In this webinar, we'll discuss the challenges and the possibilities that open mobile networks will bring to the enterprise and how you can be fully prepared.

Early next year, Microsoft will release Vista Service Pack 1, finally implementing many of the changes that IT admins have long requested in the new OS. At the same time, however, the company will release Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, making the aging OS even faster than it has ever been. Which Windows operating system is right for your enterprise? Join a panel of IT experts to find out.

It's clear: green IT is here to stay. From the desktop to the data center, admins everywhere are saving money and reducing energy costs while also helping the environment, thanks to green IT practices. Join a panel of green IT experts to find out how you can start deploying green IT, to reap savings in your organization.

What a CIO must do to get ready to comply with a discovery order that requires turning over all relevant e-mail and electronic documents in a case.

What is the right timing and process for moving? How do you make sure to get the real ROI of the transition? What hidden issues can crop up and resources will be needed to make for a successful transition?

B-I is replacing data mining as a much-needed tool. Are companies ready to invest in this technology that can give them better transparency over their data and how can they make optimal use of the information in their data bases?

Who should a CIO report to and how do you make this happen? How does this affect decisions of IT strategy, technology choice and overall performance? What influence does this have on retention of IT talent in the organization?

If you're like most providers, you need to bring together a wide array of legacy systems--using a variety of messaging formats--to support your clinicians. However, linking such systems together can be painful if you don't have the right tools. In this Webinar, we'll explain how it's possible to seamlessly integrate these systems, allowing providers to access just the information they need regardless of where it's located in your organization.

In this Webinar, find out how to build a RHIO which can meet key goals for all stakeholders, including improved clinical decision-making, reduction of medical errors and ultimately, cutting healthcare costs. Your speakers will explain how to build an IT infrastructure which allows for sharing of both IT and claims-related data between hospitals, group practices, payors, employers and public health agencies.

Increasingly, it's becoming critical to cost-effectively manage chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. However, it's difficult to do this without the proper level of IT support. In this Webinar, we'll demonstrate what kinds of systems have been proven to help chronic care programs succeed financially while providing effective patient management.

The more systems you've got, the more awkward it can be for physicians and other caregivers to find the information they need to provide patient care. To avoid this, healthcare organizations need to present caregivers with a single view of patient data which is relevant to that provider's needs. In this Webinar, we'll explain what steps healthcare organizations need to take to develop a unified view of clinical data for their key clinical staff members.

Since the bally-hooed global research settlement, the number of independent resarch outfits have multiplied. Still, there is a sense that the business model is continuing to evolve. A gamut of possibilities have emerged, everything from paid research to very niche services to trading-oriented services to Goldman Sachs' Hudson Street initiatives. Meanwhile, sell- side research continues to chug along. Join FierceFinance for a Webinar that looks at current trends in independent research and what it means for the buy-side, sell-side and possible providers. What you need to know to say abreast of this still emerging industry.

There's a lot of anxiety for hedge fund firms right now, especially when it comes to investors. The current credit environment has led to a lot of worry. Witness the high profile redemption stampedes we've seen at some top funds. Hedge fund managers and executives need to understand the communications and customer-service imperatives that always attend perceived crises. For the best hedge fund operations, such times are actually opportunities. We explore how current events can drive your customer relations activities. Part of this requires an understanding of what institutions are really looking for, beyond alpha, from their hedge fund managers.