The 48th FITCE Congress took place in the Diplomat Hotel in Prague from 3rd to 5th September 2009. There were over 120 Delegates with 50 accompanying persons, and the overall feedback from the Congress was very positive. As befits FITCE Congresses, there was a very pleasant and convivial atmosphere, where delegates enjoyed high quality presentations, stimulating discussions, and excellent opportunities for networking with old and new friends.

The 2009 Congress Theme was "Infosphere - The Reality" and included topics, which addressed areas such as, The Converging Global information market, 21st Century User Communications, Information Security and the WebCo explosion, the impact of ICT in a global economic downturn, and evolution of NGN networks in the real world. There were 34 high quality presentations, spread over 9 Sessions. The theme was addressed by the opening keynote speakers which included Mr Pavel Dvorak Chairman of the CTU Council, Mr Petr Slovacek Vice President of Telefonica O2 Czech Republic, and the outgoing President Mr Barry Reynolds, who expressed a vision for the Congress with the statement "We hope explore in depth all aspects of the global info-society and its implications for the highly internet literate up-and-coming social networking generation. Last years theme dealt with Transformation of Networks, Services and Lifestyles. The driving force behind the transformation is and always has been the empowerment of the individual, which is also at the heart of the Global Infosociety". We were also very appreciative of our sole sponsor T-Mobile CZ.

The opening session dealt with ICT transformation in the Czech Republic.

Frank Meywerk - CTO of T-Mobile CZ summarized actual developments and deployments in mobile communication with special accent on increasing of data transmission bitrates in general and focused on technological as well as business issues particularly seen inside the Czechia itself. Zdenek Brabec of FEL CVUT completed series of various statistics performing telecommunications in the CZ mirrored to all other Europe from domestic as well as various, mainly EU or OECD sources. It was demonstrated that the current state of the CZ telecommunication is fully comparable with all the other in Europe. Petr Zeman - director for international affairs of CTU - Czech regulatory body - complemented in opening session performed basic information by Pavel Dvorak, the Chairman of the CTU Council. He summarised actually solved open regulatory tasks concerning relevant markets, digital dividend as well as spectrum aspects. Anton Kuchar presented a role of small and medium CATV operators in CR in providing e-Services. The permanently increasing demand for BB brings a good chance for the CATV operators to successfully compete with the traditional telco operators. The paper performs CZ Telecom theatre focusing on the challenge for small and medium ones particularly. The overall conclusion was that the actual situation in ICT business in CZ overall is comparable now with the situation in all other Europe countries.

There were 3 winners this year. The best paper award went to Mr Ekkelenkamp from the Netherlands who addressed "Telco 2.0: The Innovation for Telecom Operators." The best presenters award went jointly to Mr Cimiotti and Mr Schenowski of CGI Group Germany, for a presentation on Mashed Services and Business Models enabled by NGOSS. The best Young Presenters award went to Mr Holvoet of Ghent University, who presented on video scheduling in the last mile.

The Congress concluded with a panel session, Chaired by Wim Van Der Bijl, with Mr Pavel Dvorak, Mr Peter Slovacek, Mr Frank Meyverk and Mr Zdenek Brabec.

During the General Assembly the outgoing President Mr Barry Reynolds of Ireland, handed over the chain of office to the new President Andrea Penza of Italy.