centuries even, when we include the prestigious Institut Télécom, which dates from 1878! Today, the region's universities work alongside its graduate schools, and both have very close links to the world of research and industry, closely monitoring the ever-faster rate of technological evolution, and leading the way to new generations of products and uses.

Many of the engineers trained and educated in these institutions will join the mobile technology teams of network operators, hardware manufacturers and the corporate giants that are making increasing use of communication technologies (banks, insurers, hyper-retailers, etc.), or may even be involved in creating or developing highly specialized start-up businesses.

This long list is headed by the Institut Télécom with its student population of 5,500: 38% from outside France, 650 academic researchers and 950 doctoral and post-doctoral students. The institute includes the Télécom Paris, Télécom Sud-Paris and Télécom Ecole de Management graduate schools, as well as Télécom Bretagne, Télécom Lille and Eurecom from outside the Paris Region.  Its cutting-edge research facilities investigate the physical issues surrounding mobile communication, coding problems, mobile networks, multimedia content, interfaces, services and uses. In recognition of its role in innovation and the quality of its partnership-based research work, the Institut Télécom is now a Carnot Institute. It creates more than 60 start-ups every year in its start-up centers, many of which are working on mobile devices, displays, ergonomics and services. In May 2010, the institute began to export its expertise to California, when it opened a Silicon Valley office to act as the bridgehead for the group in the USA and provide local support for the growth of SMEs and start-ups, at the same time as developing new academic and industrial partnerships.

Established in 1894, the SUPELEC engineering graduate school has introduced two third-year majors specializations to prepare its future engineers for the world of mobile telecoms. In fact, around 60 of the 460 graduates who leave SUPELEC every year already specialize in this discipline. SUPELEC, in collaboration with the Université Paris Sud 11 and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Cachan, has also developed a Masters program focusing specifically on research in mobile communications. Now the leading program of its type in France, it addresses all the technologies that are paving the way for future generations of mobile communication and the new services they will deliver. SUPELEC is one of the leading members of NEWCOM++ (Network of Excellence in Wireless Communications), a European network of researchers working on Mobile and Wireless Systems Beyond 3G.
ESIEE Engineering trains around 30 engineers every year in this specialty, which includes devices as well as infrastructures. It also has very close links with a number of leading industrial partners, including ST-ERICSSON and NXP.  Alongside traditional areas of research in the electronics of telecoms, ESIEE is also working on mobile applications. For example, it has already developed a system that helps sight-impaired and hearing-impaired users in urban environments, and a video transmission system that can monitor the progress of a disaster in real-time to improve emergency service coordination.

The ENSEA offers its students intensive third-year specialties in digital telecoms (GSM, UMTS, LTE, etc.). Many of its lectures involve industrial partners, like Altran, Alcatel-Lucent and Freescale. Every year, 8 students work as trainees at Altran on the Neptune project, for example. This innovation platform funded by the System@tic competitiveness cluster is working on implementation of an experimental ultra-high-speed wireless network built around WiMax and 4G technologies.

In addition to these specialist institutions, the Paris Region is also home to many more general graduate schools and universities that include mobile telecommunications specialties amongst their courses. The Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines offers a Radio Communications Networks with Mobiles masters course, for example, and similar options are available at the Université Orsay Paris Sud, Ecole Nationale des Arts et Métiers, Ecole des Mines de Paris, Ecole Centrale de Paris, Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Techniques Avancées.

Press contact
Frédérique de Bast - Chief Marketing Officer
at MWC the 15th and 16th February : +33 (0)6 25 69 21 91
Email:fdebast@paris-region.com