Telecommunications Forum „Telfor 2023“ took place in Belgrade on November 21 and 22, with the main topics focusing on the development of broadband infrastructure in Serbian rural areas, as well as 5G network transitioning. This year’s „Telfor“ was opened by Mihailo Jovanović, Minister of Information and Telecommunications and Dragan Kovačević, Chair of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (RATEL).

In his introductory speech, Mr. Jovanović pointed out that implementation of the new Law on Electronic Communications is very important for the interconnection, sharing of telecommunication infrastructure, the construction of infrastructure in rural areas and for the 5G auction, and announced that up to 2025, through the project of broadband communications infrastructure construction in rural areas, more than 99% households in the Republic of Serbia will be covered by the new generation networks, whereas Mr. Dragan Kovačević presented main activities and future plans of RATEL.

Two papers were presented by RATEL at Telfor. The first one, entitled “Role of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite mega constellations in the 5G ecosystem“, deals with the market of satellite telecommunications, trends of cooperation between mobile and satellite operators and new services offered by satellite operators to end-users (broadband Internet, SOS text messages as assistance to the rescue services in areas with no mobile coverage, as well as satellite universal services). Second paper, entitled „Models for improving competition on the postal services market”, analyzes the models for the improvement of the postal market quality, such as: establishment of a single GIS portal, portal „Price of Services“ for comparison of express and courier service prices, and comparison of quality parameters of 5 dominant postal express service operators.

The Forum showcased all relevant aspects of Telecommunications and IT, such as: research, technical development, regulatory and economics matters, education, equipment production, services and operation of systems, and was attended by numerous authors, individual visitors and company representatives from more than 30 countries and all fields of telecommunications and information technologies.