Light Reading's SPIT Week Begins

UBM TechWeb's Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), the largest research-led media company serving the global communications marketplace, is celebrating Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) Week, five days of focused content that covers many of topics and technologies identified in Light Reading's SPIT Manifesto published in February (http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=187395&).

SPIT, or Service Provider Information Technology, is Light Reading's new term describing the evolving set of non-traditional telecom (and data networking) technologies that allow for a greater degree of flexibility in the creation, management, delivery, and monetization of new-generation communications services. Beginning today, Light Reading is showcasing some special coverage devoted to the topic during a special week of coverage that has been generously sponsored by Nokia Siemens Networks.

We're kicking off SPIT Week with a Special Feature, "Who Makes What: Telecom Service Brokers," which covers an emerging category of devices and techniques service providers are using to deal with third-party applications stores and online service development and creation environments (http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=186314&).

Also today, Light Reading TV (LRTV) publishes an interview with Ravinder Jain, the CIO of Aircel Ltd., India's fifth-largest mobile operator. Jain talks about the growing importance of the CIO in modern service providers, and how the CIO's team is no longer confined to the back office, but is increasingly involved in front-line business transformation processes (http://www.lightreading.com/video.asp?doc_id=188481&).

"The ongoing developments in the service provider IT sector, whether in new-generation OSS, convergent billing, service delivery platforms, or policy control, are vital to the strategies of today's communications service providers, and need to be identified and understood," says Ray Le Maistre, Light Reading's International Managing Editor. "We hope our coverage will go some way toward highlighting the key SPIT issues impacting service providers and will identify some of new technology developments underway at many of the industry's major players and innovative specialists."

SPIT Week will be accompanied by a series of SPIT-related Webinars and a SPIT-related virtual event, Three OSS Imperatives: Customer, Cost & Cloud, scheduled for April 20. The first Webinar, titled "Generating New Revenue Streams While Improving Differentiation & Efficiency," will take place on Thursday, March 4 and is sponsored by Nokia Siemens Networks. You can register for the Webinar here: http://www.lightreading.com/webinar.asp?webinar_id=29374. The Webinar is free to attend. For information on SPIT-related sponsorship and speaking opportunities contact sales@lightreading.com.

  Contact:
  Amy Averbook
  Light Reading
  212 600-3373
  averbook@lightreading.com


  About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technological and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, and TelcoTV Asia, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Europe, and The Tower Summit @ CTIA, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives in the US, Europe, India, and China. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About UBM TechWeb

UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and professional information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology. Through its core businesses - media solutions, marketing services, and professional information - UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands, applications, and services in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs, IT and IT support managers, Web and digital professionals, software and game developers, government decision makers, and telecom providers) actively participate in UBM TechWeb's communities. UBM TechWeb brands includes: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Web 2.0, Black Hat, and VoiceCon; large-scale online networks such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Gamasutra; research, training, and certification services, including HDI, Pyramid Research, and InformationWeek Analytics; and market-leading magazines such as InformationWeek and Wall Street & Technology. UBM TechWeb is part of UBM, a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print, and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

SOURCE: Light Reading

CONTACT: Amy Averbook, Light Reading, +1-212 600-3373,
averbook@lightreading.com

Web Site: http://www.lightreading.com/