CELTIC Event in Berlin - A glimpse of the future of telecommunications
"What distinguishes CELTIC from any other research programme is that all projects provide end-to-end solutions close to the market," says CELTIC chairman José Jimenez from Telefónica. As part of the one-billion-euro programme, 34 projects have already been started since 2003, and 18 more projects are expected to be launched this year. Currently, there are about 350 companies from 29 countries involved in CELTIC projects, almost one-third of them small and medium-sized enterprises. By the end of 2007, Mr Jimenez expects that the number of participating companies will have reached 450. He is convinced that "these industry-driven projects will help Europe to stay on top of the technological development in ICT".
+++ FIDELITY – advanced identity management +++
One of the 17 projects whose results will be presented at the CELTIC exhibition is FIDELITY. The project addresses a problem that has become a nuisance for many Internet and telecoms users: every time you want to use a paid service on the Internet you have to authenticate yourself, repeatedly entering personal details.
FIDELITY has developed a secure and user-friendly authentication system based on advanced identity management that will enable users to just log on once and then be authenticated for all other services on the Web. This path-breaking identity management solution is based on so-called Circles of Trust, which include an identity provider responsible for user authentication, an attribute provider to manage the users’ personal attributes, and a service provider to provide the actual service. The project is led by France Télécom and cooperates with the Liberty Alliance, a 150-member organisation dedicated to the improvement of identity management. At the CELTIC Event, FIDELITY will provide a demonstration of its identity management solution.
Other outstanding CELTIC project results to be shown at the exhibition include a medical robot (BANITS), advanced multimedia solutions (MACs), radio resource management (Gandalf), and mobile TV via the DVB-H standard (Wing-TV).
The CELTIC Event will be opened on 22 February by Peter Möckel, managing director of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. Another keynote will be given by Dr. Volkmar Dietz, head of the communications technologies division at BMBF, the German Ministry of Education and Research.CELTIC Event 2007:
Facing the Challenges of Ubiquitous ICT – The Next Generation of Communication
22 - 23 February 2007
Venue: Deutsche Telekom, Französische Str. 33 a-c, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Press tour through the exhibition with José Jimenez, chairman of CELTIC,
and Heinz Brüggemann, director of the CELTIC Office
22 February 2007, 12:30, meeting point: registration desk
About CELTIC:
CELTIC is a EUREKA cluster programme, which initiates and runs privately and publicly funded R&D projects in the field of telecommunications. The initiative is supported by most of the major European players in communication technologies. CELTIC projects focus on telecoms networks, applications, and services based on a complete-system approach. CELTIC is the only European R&D programme fully dedicated to complete system-integrated telecommunications solutions. The size of the CELTIC budget is in the range of 1 billion euro. CELTIC is open to any kind of project participation from all EUREKA countries. So far, 29 countries are participating in CELTIC. CELTIC is operated and supported by the following major players in telecommunications: Alcatel Lucent, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Eurescom, France Telecom, Italtel, Nokia, RAD Data Communications, Telefónica, and Thomson. CELTIC website: http://www.celtic-initiative.org(opens in new window)
About EUREKA:
EUREKA is a pan-European network for market-oriented, industrial R&D. EUREKA supports the competitiveness of European companies through international collaboration to create partnerships and networks of innovation. The objective is to bring high quality research and development efforts to the marketplace and encourage the multiplying effects of cooperation. The aim is to advance and improve the quality of life. EUREKA website: http://www.eureka.be(opens in new window)