The conference will focus on the establishment and coordination of a fully integrated emergency management and response system at the national and regional levels in Eastern Europe.

Gábor Éry, president of Ericsson Hungary, says: "Ericsson is a world-leading solution provider in emergency management and response with more than 25 years' continuous development experience together with the end-users - the blue light organizations. This is why we decided to sponsor the event and share our competence."

During the conference, business executives and senior-level officials from Europe and the US will discuss projects and potential areas of cooperation through panel discussions, workshops, product demonstrations and one-to-one meetings.

Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary Ferenc Gyurcsány will open the conference, along with US Ambassador to Hungary April Foley. Ministerial delegates from 16 countries are expected to participate.

Björn Krantz, business manager at Ericsson, says that Central and Eastern European countries are in a phase where extensive investments need to be made in order to enhance operational efficiency in relation to emergency response and border control.

Krantz says: "We can see these investment needs being realized because the EU is putting pressure on the member countries to meet with new regulatory objectives. And Ericsson is well recognized and positioned to support customers in their vision to build a safer society."

Ericsson will also be advocating the Governmental Home Network (GHN), which reuses existing commercial GSM and/or WCDMA network infrastructure for strategic communication within the government sector.

"By reusing existing commercial infrastructure, we can offer the end customer wireless broadband data and voice solutions with outstanding cost-efficiency and deployment time," Krantz says.

Ericsson is advocating the use of a single number, 112, for the whole EU.

Éry says: "Although 112 has been introduced in several countries in the region, we still see tremendous room for improvement in order to increase security and decrease reaction lead times, as well as saving lives and money."

Ericsson has built numerous 112 emergency response systems in Europe, providing nationwide coverage in the countries of implementation. The company has provided products and solutions for first responders such as ambulance, fire brigade, police and defense and law enforcement services. The solutions include mission-critical communication infrastructure, mobile broadband, command and control solutions, professional services and managed networks.

"Our solution is based on a standard system, which could be integrated with elements of other systems, such as dedicated private radio networks," Éry says. "We have proved this not only with our emergency response work, but also with the mobile and network services we have implemented in these countries.

"We offer an excellent opportunity to benefit from existing public infrastructure and investments. We also ensure interoperability through open standards, and tailor our offerings to customers' specific needs."