THE TELECOMS INDUSTRY MEDIA PLATFORM
Creating value with open innovation and inclusive development
Qatar: a model for The whys and hows of telecom What are green IPv6 adoption infrastructure automation networks anyway? DIVE into DIGITAL
GITEX Technology Week 2021
17-21 October Dubai World Trade Center, United Arab Emirates
Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World DIVE into DIGITAL
GITEX Technology Week 2021
17-21 October Dubai World Trade Center, United Arab Emirates
Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World SEPTEMBER 2021 CONTENTS 2
THE TELECOMS INDUSTRY MEDIA PLATFORM
6 16
Creating value with open innovation and inclusive Etisalat leading the way for SMBs and development entrepreneurs 22 26
How 5G business development was a major Digital services: A solution or a problem for the contributor to Kuwait carriers’ positive H1 2021 climate’s challenge? A preliminary response financial results based on a quantitative approach
20 Mobile operators can now scale up their network 30 IoT connectivity: Challenges and strategies capacity for 5G with Nokia’s new radio products 36 Role of AI and ML in enterprise networks
24 Qatar: a model for IPv6 adoption 44 What are green networks anyway?
28 The whys and hows of telecom infrastructure automation 50 SASE: Future of network security SEPTEMBER 2021 EDITORIAL 3
Editor in Chief & Senior ICT Analyst Toni Eid
Senior Journalist & Content Manager Toni Eid, Christine Ziadeh founder editor in chief Telecom Review International Journalists Elvi Correos
Jonathan Pradhan The race for connectivity Editorial Team Christine Ziadeh (Lebanon), Corrine Teng (Singapore), Elvi Correos (UAE), Elza Moukawam (Lebanon), Jeff Seal (USA), – Submarine and Jennifer Saade (Lebanon), Jonathan Pradhan (UAE), Marielena Geagea (Lebanon), Toni Eid (UAE)
Advertising Enquiries transoceanic cables Mohammed Ershad or the last 4 years, the deployment of subsea and marine cables has been Graphic Designer faster and more agile. Tatiana Issa The Covid-19 pandemic pushed this race forward and the cloud providers Responsible Manager Nada Eid who are looking to secure their data and clouds services to the public and private sectors, and the increase of demand on cloud services are also News great contributors. Provided in cooperation with F AFP, the global news agency Amazon, Microsoft and Google are on top of CAPEX spenders on cables, but some deals are also signed in partnership with telecom providers as OTTs or the big Published by players are looking to secure their connectivity and make sure they can have an edge over others.
Google is partnering in a huge cable connection project in USA and with India, Trace Media Ltd. choosing Reliance as its strategic partner. Sparkle Telecom Italia is still investing in Zouk Mikael, Lebanon a subsea cable for Transatlantic. In order to diversify its connectivity after BREXIT, Kaslik Sea Side Road, Microsoft’s AMITIE cable is connecting now USA with Europe with 2 landing points Badawi Group Building, 4th Floor, in UK and France. P.O. Box 90-2113, Jdeidet el Metn Tel. +961 9 211741 M. +961 70 519 666 The race is mainly fierce in both Pacific and Atlantic oceans, in what we are calling the transoceanic cable, but it is also connecting Asia to the Middle East or African shores. Africa and the Middle East are now points for 464 cables and 1245 landing Trace Media FZ.LLC. stations (some are still under construction). Dubai Media City, UAE Building 7, 3rd Floor, Office 341 P.O. Box 502498, Dubai, UAE Africa is now home to one of the longest cables ever planned. The 37,000 kilometer Tel. +971 4 4474890 cable will connect 16 countries in Africa and 23 countries overall. Besides the M. +971 55 639 7080 extreme length, the cable also features a massive potential capacity of over 180 Tbps over 16 fiber pairs. Printing United Printing and Publishing The members of the cable consortium include China Mobile, Facebook, MTN, © All rights reserved Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. Publication of any of the contents is prohibited In addition, Maroc Telecom’s new West Africa Cable will head south from Casablanca linking Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, and Gabon later this year. Year 16 | Issue 177
SEPTEMBER 2021 COVER STORY 6
In an exclusive interview with Charles Yang, President of Huawei Middle East, the leading telecom vendor’s role, priorities, strategies, and outlooks have been put into detail with relation to the ongoing digital transformation in the region and the COVID-19 pandemic’s massive influence to the fourth industrial revolution.
r. Yang rationalized how Huawei’s unwavering commitment Charles Yang, President, Huawei Middle East to innovation brings value Mand results to the society and its ecosystem partners. With initiatives on 5G, cybersecurity, ICT talent, and other products and solutions, Huawei is ready Creating value and willing to work across the entire ICT value chain to make the future a more prosperous and sustainable one for all.
Ongoing digital innovation in the with open Middle East is lighting up every industry’s future. What do you think makes Huawei stand out in its role as a strategic ICT partner to governments and organizations in the region today? At Huawei, we see enormous innovation opportunities to help support the digital transformation of the region, and in turn build the digital economy of the future. To do that, I think it all starts with having a customer-centric mindset. and inclusive We must always create results for our customers. We can only do this by striving and delivering the best possible user experience—whether that is for a government entity, a multinational development enterprise, a telecom operator, or an individual consumer. We continue to SEPTEMBER 2021 COVER STORY 7
invest strongly in technology, human an ecosystem allows for shared resources, and our physical footprint in success for individuals, businesses, the Middle East. We have large, locally- and governments. In fact, Huawei has based teams dedicated to everything established 13 Open Labs around the from solution design to deployment, world—including in the Middle East—to standardization, technical support, and support open collaboration for shared much more. success.
Closely tied to this theme is an I would also add that bridging the unwavering commitment to innovation. digital skills gap is another important Huawei began 5G Huawei’s R&D investments over objective and differentiator of Huawei in the past decade have exceeded the Middle East. We are supporting the research as early as USD110 billion. As just one example region’s digital future through various of technology innovation, we can look education and training-oriented CSR 2009, has invested at the area of 5G. Huawei began 5G initiatives. Programs like our Seeds research as early as 2009, has invested for the Future initiative and Huawei USD4 billion in 5G so far, and has the ICT Competition are just a few that USD4 billion in 5G so highest number of 5G patents of any have had tremendous success in company globally. The result is that we the Middle East, promoting a greater far, and has the highest have worked on many of the signature understanding of and interest in the 5G network rollouts in the Middle East technology field while encouraging number of 5G patents of to date. participation in the region’s growing digital economy. any company globally All of this is based on open collaboration. We have continuously How do you see the role of ICT having advocated for an open approach to evolved as a result of the pandemic innovation, focusing on constructive this year, and is there a roadmap now dialogue, cross-industry cooperation, for boosting economic recovery? and exchanging expertise with different We have all witnessed the role that countries in the Middle East and technology can play in societal worldwide. Working together within transformation, especially over the last SEPTEMBER 2021 COVER STORY 8
year. Applications based on 5G, AI, The development of 5G in the region, In particular, we see an opportunity cloud, and big data have been vital to particularly the Gulf, is truly world- to advance the 5G value proposition helping organizations and individuals leading. What is Huawei’s plan to keep for businesses. The real value of 5G navigate the challenges of the up with the demands and opportunities now transcends the telecoms industry COVID-19 pandemic. New applications this innovation brings? and has transformative implications are enabling remote education, Let me start by saying that Huawei is for the economy as a whole. We refer telework, entertainment, and much proud that many of the leading telecom to this as 5GtoB applications. Today, more. Moreover, these technologies operators in the region have chosen the the Huawei 5GtoB Suite provides have been utilized by healthcare company as a 5G technology partner industry networks with intelligent and organizations in applications such as of choice. We were part of many of the precise planning, simplified on-demand digital temperature checks, pandemic first-phase 5G commercial rollouts in provisioning, and proactive network tracking, and so on, effectively helping the Middle East, and have continued O&M for the planning, construction, to contain the pandemic where to expand those networks with our maintenance, and optimization phases possible. partners. We believe that whatever of business networks. geography or industry you’re looking at, We can build on this template as 5G success first requires a 5G network In selecting suitable industries for an ICT industry and as a society that provides the best user experience. 5G deployments, operators should to boost economic recovery. While This guides how we innovate at Huawei choose target industries by looking COVID-19 is our priority for today, around 5G. at four factors: demand, affordability, the post-pandemic world will need replicability, and technical feasibility. an innovative approach towards In countries where 5G is developing They should also define the scope of economic recovery and improving faster, operators have seen faster their offerings to serve local needs. quality of life; making businesses revenue growth, and been able to open Operators can act as network providers smarter and creating a more inclusive up new revenue streams. To build that offer connectivity services, but world in which everyone has the an effective 5G-led business cycle, they can also serve as cloud service opportunity to thrive. It is not about we believe more resources should providers, or even system integrators one specific solution or initiation. To be invested in four aspects: unifying that provide end-to-end integration create the most value in a society 5G standards, technology readiness, services. empowered by connectivity, we must ecosystem support, and exploring ultimately focus on open innovation business models that can benefit all Such use cases require ongoing and inclusive development. industry partners. innovation. In 5GtoB, for example, 5G SEPTEMBER 2021 COVER STORY 9
standards need to be coordinated Again, part of this comes down to with industry standards faster, and customer-centric innovation. We have enterprises should look to integrate 5G developed more than 100 scenario- into their core production processes based solutions that cover over 10 to help them go digital and intelligent. industries including smart cities, With this in mind, Huawei recently finance, energy, transportation, and launched several 5G products and manufacturing. Our products and solutions oriented to “1+N” 5G target solutions, such as HUAWEI CLOUD, networks. Supercharged by industry- intelligent IP networks, Intelligent leading innovation, these products OptiX Network, as well as others in and solutions will help promote computing, data centers, and data multi-antenna technology to all bands storage, have become increasingly and all scenarios to build leading 5G competitive within the market. We have networks. combined a number of our cutting-edge products in order to meet customers’ Underpinning all of this 5G differentiated needs. development is cooperation with the public sector. Governments in the In particular, the HUAWEI CLOUD has Middle East especially have set very developed rapidly. The company has ambitious agendas that have digital already been placed in Gartner’s famed transformation as a cornerstone of Magic Quadrant for cloud database success. Some of these programs look management. Gartner now ranks 10, 20, or 50 years into the future. By Huawei at the fifth position globally engaging public leaders today, we can in the IaaS market, with over 200% innovate to support the businesses growth year on year in 2020. HUAWEI of tomorrow, and assist nations in CLOUD works with more than 20,000 achieving their national development partners, including more than 14,000 visions. consulting and over 6,000 technology partners, and has brought together 1.8 Looking to other areas, Huawei’s million developers. To date, over 4,500 global revenues from its Enterprise applications have been launched on the Business Group grew substantially HUAWEI CLOUD Marketplace. this year. What do you attribute this to, and what is your outlook for the Naturally, we recognize that our rest of 2021 for this group? achievements are made possible Allow me to first say that, at Huawei, only by the hard work and dedication we believe enterprises must work from ecosystem partners across all together to embrace the era of digital industries and domains. Earlier this Huawei recently transformation, of which Huawei year, for example, we announced a can be a leading partner. Digital new channel strategy that embraces launched several transformation has never been more in a collaborative, win-win approach the spotlight as a result of the events for distributors, resellers, system of the past year, with the pandemic integrators and alliances. This new 5G products and affecting all industries around the direction stems from the belief that world. In this era of rapid digitalization, the company’s long-term success solutions oriented we aspire to create the most value is dependent on the success of for our enterprise customers and our the ecosystem it operates in. The to “1+N” 5G target ecosystem partners. company’s channel architecture and channel policies are thus based on four networks That ethos is reflected in the revenue key measures – profitability, simplicity, trends you have mentioned. The enablement, and ecosystem. revenues from our enterprise business globally in H1 2021 were approximately With robust ICT standardizations and USD6.6 billion. We had also achieved cybersecurity benchmarks crucial robust growth throughout 2020, with to expanding the region’s digital a year-on-year revenue increase of economy, how have you approached 23%. Over 700 cities and 253 Fortune these priorities to date in 2021, and Global 500 companies worldwide have what priorities does the industry need chosen Huawei as their partner for to address in the near future? digital transformation. As the importance of digital technology SEPTEMBER 2021 COVER STORY 10
continues to rise, so too are the requirements of cybersecurity. With increasing cyberattacks, all industries are taking cybersecurity more seriously. Cyber defense thus requires strengthened global cooperation. It is not the responsibility of one company or country; governments, technology companies, and other stakeholders At Huawei, we feel it’s need to cooperate on unified laws and regulations to protect the digital essential to engage the economy and ensure fair access to innovations that can serve future entire digital ecosystem generations. A safer network is our common obligation. through openness and At Huawei, we feel it’s essential to engage the entire digital ecosystem collaboration to harness through openness and collaboration to harness unified international unified international standards that mitigate challenges in the cyber ecosystem. We have standards that mitigate time and again emphasized the need to work within a standards-based challenges in the cyber framework. Our actions speak even louder than our words. Huawei has participated in more than 360 industry ecosystem standards organizations, held more than 300 important positions in these industry standards organizations, and actively submits proposals to industry standards organizations, making significant contributions to the development of these standards. together to build this heightened level means being able to scale when Today, Huawei’s top-down of security. For example, national needed to solve business questions cybersecurity governance structure cybersecurity strategies being drawn and human challenges, whether it is supports the success of its business in up by governments now incorporate delivering healthcare solutions, remote the Middle East and around the world. contributions from security experts education, or emergency connectivity The Global Cyber Security and User in the private sector, technology to a world in need. Privacy Protection Committee (GSPC), companies, and academia, in addition headed by Huawei’s Global Rotating to policymakers. Huawei has been In addition to the idea of resilience, Chairman Mr. Ken Hu, is Huawei’s part of numerous national and there’s a pressing need to ensure that highest cybersecurity management regional panels, action groups, and we increase access to technology. body. The GSPC is in charge of think tanks working to contribute to Technology is too important to be left developing Huawei’s security strategy various cybersecurity initiatives. We are in the hands of technologists alone; and plans, as well as manages and eager to support and encourage such end-users must be empowered to oversees how departments such as initiatives. access and consume these solutions to R&D, supply chain, marketing, sales, ensure digital transformation benefits and so on structure their security What other factors could significantly all. teams and ensure security in their affect the fourth industrial revolution business activities. Along the way, we in the years to come, and how should During the pandemic, for example, adopt an “ABC principle” – Assume organizations prepare for these future parents and teachers have had to nothing, Believe nobody, and Check trends? turn into unwitting experts on remote everything based on open and verifiable Once again, the COVID-19 pandemic education to ensure that children can technical standards. showed us just how quickly today’s continue their education. Remote global economy can shift. The workers have had to navigate Looking outwards, we are encouraged technologies that underpin the fourth unfamiliar teleconference apps. As to see a growing desire from industrial revolution must ultimately an ICT industry, we must help ensure stakeholders in the region to work be built with resilience in mind. That that the public is digitally empowered SEPTEMBER 2021 COVER STORY 11
to use the platforms available to them and harmonious ecosystems. Nearly all of business and personal life, these today. Simplifying the user experience of these contribute to the UN SDGs. benefits must be delivered without with real people in mind, and availing any more detrimental impact on the easily accessible training modules, are There is a lot to unpack in each of environment. excellent places to start. these four areas. So for now, allow me to examine environmental protection I think the telecoms industry has taken In building more sustainable ICT in specific, as this is certainly an a leading role in addressing its own ecosystems in the region, what important consideration for all our energy efficiency. The cellular industry lessons have you taken away from partners in the Middle East. was the world’s first, in 2016, to commit 2021 already, and how has that to achieving the UN Sustainable influenced the company’s future Following a study released by Development Goals (SDGs), setting an outlook? Analysys Mason and commissioned industry goal of net-zero emissions by It’s a good question. It really comes by Huawei, we lay in stark terms the 2050. Operators’ energy efficiency is back to our vision and mission. We environmental challenge facing the now one of the primary considerations want to bring digital to every person, world, and envision a technology-led when planning and optimizing new home, and organization for a fully pursuit of a more sustainable future. mobile networks. Many techniques – connected, intelligent world. Based It notes that technologies like 5G are from innovative power for base stations on this, we have developed our being rolled out at a time when energy to AI-enabled preventive maintenance sustainability strategy, incorporating efficiency is sometimes a matter of life – can be applied. it into the company’s overall or death, but that technology can play a development roadmap. significant role in helping every industry Whether in the area of environmental to hit sustainability goals by enabling protection or another sustainability field, In particular, we are focusing on four them to transform their processes we are ready and willing to work with priorities for sustainability: Digital and behavior. While the rising use of partners across the entire value chain inclusion, security and trustworthiness, technology has brought numerous to make the future a more prosperous environmental protection, and healthy new experiences to every aspect one for all. SEPTEMBER 2021 REGIONAL NEWS 12
CITC publishes consultation on spectrum light licensing
spectrum, through light licensing typically reduces the administrative regimes that cater for specific usage burden when applying to use spectrum, categories. The publication also and speeds up the process such that includes an implementation plan for the transmitters can be put into service introduction of the licensing process more quickly. At the same time, which commences in early 2022. governments and regulatory bodies find a light licensing structure, when Saudi communications authority the The main objective of this ambitious used in conjunction with a database Communications and Information approach is to facilitate using the to allocate spectrum according to Technology Commission (CITC), has spectrum on a shared basis among demand, more efficient in utilizing published a consultation on ‘spectrum various users and services. This will scarce spectrum resources between light licensing’. promote competition and enable different usage types and users. The innovation, by allowing flexible licensing reduction in administrative burden does The public consultation aims to provide methods to meet the spectrum needs not, however, mean that there is a lack interested parties with an opportunity to of the market through pioneering of regulatory certainty as a number of submit their views on the introduction methods of spectrum management. factors including the frequency and of the light licensing regime and its location of use have to be recorded. various aspects. CITC is inviting all parties, both nationally and internationally, to provide Views/comments can be submitted to As part of CITC’s mission to ensure their feedback and comments by 30th one or more of the following addresses: reliable communications services and September 2021. CITC welcomes • By email to (Spectrum.Strategy@citc. innovative digital technologies in the submissions from all stakeholders, gov.sa). Kingdom, CITC previously launched including users, ICT providers, • Hand-delivered (paper and electronic) its ‘Spectrum Outlook for Commercial investors, industrial and public entities. at the CITC premises. and Innovative Use 2021-2023’, which • By mail (paper copy and electronic) includes the commission’s first step Light licensing has been used in various to the following postal address: towards improving access to spectrum guises in the UK, USA, Australia, Japan Communications and Information through a light licensing regime. and many other countries for many Technology Commission, Al-Nakheel years, including use for services such District- Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz The new consultation document as high power outdoor Wi-Fi, business I Street intersection with Imam Saud outlines CITC’s plans to improve radio (PMR) and fixed links. Spectrum Bin Abdul Aziz Road, PO Box 75606, access to more than 13 GHz of users are keen on light licensing as it Riyadh 11588, Saudi Arabia. Shutdown of 2G networks in UAE proceeds as scheduled
supported devices will be stopped in capabilities towards adopting and using June 2022 across UAE markets. TDRA the latest and best technologies arises. confirmed that this process would Overall, this will contribute to achieving redirect the allocated 2G resources in a comprehensive digital transformation supporting new generations of mobile that ensures the provision of the best networks (4G and 5G). In cooperation smart services. with service providers, TDRA is focused on building modern and advanced Dating back to 1994, UAE was a pioneer networks that meet the users’ current in implementing 2G. Today, it is a leader and future requirements. in 5G innovation, aiming to meet the needs for a modern and more capable The Telecommunications and TDRA drew the customers’ attention to network to communicate between a Digital Government Regulatory stop using 2G-only supported devices huge number of devices (IoT). Authority (TDRA) affirmed that the by the announced date. Instead, devices 2G (GSM) shutdown process in the that support the newer generations of This step also reflects the rapid UAE is proceeding according to telecom networks should be used to development of the ICT sector, in which plan. Scheduled for the end of 2022, access the best telecom services. mobile networks play a major role. The service providers (Etisalat and du) will Emirates’ comprehensive strategy and discontinue support for 2G networks TDRA indicated that this step comes clear roadmap secure its position at the completely. in light of the rapid development of top of network connectivity. In fact, the telecom technologies within the ICT UAE ranked 1st on mobile and top 20 in Following this, the sale of 2G-only sector. Hence, the need to direct all fixed broadband speeds globally. Enhancing life through digital transformation
www.benya.capital SEPTEMBER 2021 REGIONAL NEWS 14
KSA sets aside SR4 bn to upskill digital talents, unveils home- grown smart chips
Programming and Drones MCIT has established the National (SAFCSP) along with the Ministry of Technology Development Program Communications and Information with a budget of SR2.5 billion with Technology (MCIT), and the Saudi Data the goal of making the Kingdom the and Artificial Intelligence Authority world’s leading technology country. (SDAIA). The program launched its early Several multinational corporations products, Financial Security, to have announced their interest to strengthen trust between tech partner with the Kingdom to create companies and financial entities, digital capability centers and as well as the SME loan guarantee innovation hubs for tech startups. program, Kafalah, which aims to provide up to 90 percent insurance of Minister of Communications and the financing value and with a volume Information Technology Eng. Abdullah of SR15million. Al-Sawaha unveiled the first Saudi- Saudi Arabia launched a host of made smart chip to be used in military, Meanwhile, the Saudi Chinese eWTP technology initiatives worth SR4 billion civil and commercial applications. Arabia Capital fund with $400m capital, ($1.06 billion) directed at upskilling which seeks to support technology the 100,000 Saudi digital talents in line The report quoted the head of the startups in the Kingdom, was also with Saudi Vision 2030, according to Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence unveiled at the Launch event. This state news agency report. Authority Abdullah Al-Ghamdi as investment came along after Alibaba saying that Saudi Arabia aims to be Cloud chose Riyadh as its regional The announcement was made at one of the top 5 countries globally in AI center for management and training, the Launch event organized by the and requires 25,000 specialists’ jobs in with investments amounting to $500m Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, data science and AI before 2030. over five years in the region.
Abu Dhabi starts development of region’s first-ever quantum computer The helium dilution fridge comprises create exponentially stronger processing six levels – the top one is at room powers and help perform complex temperature, with the temperature calculations that would take much steadily dropping in the lower levels until longer to solve even by the world’s most the device can achieve the extremely powerful classical supercomputers. low temperature of 10 Milikelvin (mK) – one-hundredth of the temperature Traditional computers use bits arranged of outer space - that is optimal for the as combinations of ones and zeroes quantum chip to operate. while quantum computers use qubits in which particles can exist in two states To set the stage ready for the operation TII’s Quantum Research Centre (QRC) at the same time – thereby, increasing of the region’s first quantum computer, is in charge of the breakthrough their computing power through allowing the Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation technology project that aims to give them to evaluate multiple outcomes at Institute (TII) unveiled the cryostat - the the Arab world a quantum advantage once. initial frame of its quantum computer through developing a supercomputer that is being assembled in the UAE with exponential computational Abu Dhabi is building the quantum capital. capabilities. computer in collaboration with Barcelona-based Qilimanjaro Quantum Two helium dilution refrigerators A quantum computer uses quantum Tech. The quantum computer once it imported from Finland will supply the mechanics phenomena such as takes shape, can prove invaluable in helium isotopes that essential to keep ‘superposition’ and ‘entanglement’ to diverse fields – from discovering new the quantum chips or the brain of generate and manipulate subatomic medicines to designing better batteries, the computer cool and maintain the particles like electrons or photons - and also help in multiple artificial quantum information. quantum bits also known as ‘qubits’ - to intelligence applications.
SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 16
Etisalat leading the way for SMBs and entrepreneurs The large young population makes the startup ecosystem in the region most vibrant with one of the highest levels of digital connectivity. In addition, a number of initiatives have emerged in recent years to promote business and social entrepreneurship in the region.
or Etisalat, small ecosystem with 26% of all deals, as business we can contribute to with businesses are an per the report from Magnitt. our enhanced services and solutions. integral component Etisalat over the years has taken of the overall The country also accounted for 60% care of every business and digital business, therefore of total funding across the Middle requirement which is a major step in constant innovation East and North Africa (MENA). During this direction. is key with a range the COVID-19 outbreak last year, Fof products and services designed to MENA start-ups attracted $1 billion Today we are also able to play a make their lives easier. with UAE attracting investments greater role in the digital lives of these locally and from global markets. This enterprises with the backbone of a Esam Mahmoud, Senior Vice signals high investor confidence robust and one of the most advanced, President, SMB, Etisalat shares his despite global pandemic. fastest and widest network in the insights on the growing startup region. ecosystem and the various initiatives Importance of startups to business for this segment. Small and medium businesses Etisalat initiatives for startups (SMBs) today make up for about 94% Customers today are looking at Growing startup landscape of businesses in the UAE representing focusing on achieving their long-term The UAE comes out top of the list over 60% of the country’s GDP, business objectives with minimal driven by advanced infrastructure, therefore an important segment in hassle on the operational front. They high funding levels and extended Etisalat business. This is an integral look for a one-stop shop solution government support for businesses. component to our overall business where they deal with one single player The country has been looking to and is driven by a commitment to the reducing the hassle of dealing with diversify its economy beyond the future of UAE. It is essential to support multiple partners. oil and gas trade for a number of the noble vision of the leadership in years now, which has facilitated creating a hub for startups and SMBs Etisalat has been focused on the advancement of the business encouraging them to come and set up delivering innovative solutions to ecosystem. their businesses in the country. support business needs for many years now, that are delivered majorly The economic diversification drive Etisalat has continuously worked to from the cloud, removing the need undertaken by regional governments enable these young businesses with for on premise deployments and in the past has given rise to a plethora all the important elements, first is to installations, customisable as per of startups across the Middle East be an active participant in enabling the business needs and size and and North Africa (MENA) region. The UAE leadership’s vision, secondly with ultimately include bundled offerings regional startup ecosystem has grown SMBs generating 60% of the GDP that deliver much more value to the from strength to strength; the UAE and 86% of the population working business than buying these products remained the most active startup in these companies, it’s definitely a from the market. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 17
Archive picture taken pre-COVID
Etisalat’s main emphasis was always Hub’ added value through innovation on the aspects that are required for enabling them with the right tools day-to-day business requirements and services to drive into this digital mainly the six pillars which are smart future. At Etisalat, we are committed connectivity, unified communications, to providing startups and SMBs office productivity, security and with tailored advanced solutions analytics, business devices and digital to increase their profitability and Etisalat is able to play a marketing. productivity.
Etisalat’s priority has been enabling The specialised business hub greater role in the digital customers with digital transformation located at One JLT, Jumeirah Lake by offering them innovative solutions. Towers, Dubai offers the latest lives of SMBs with the Business Edge is an example that telecommunications solutions tailored focuses on helping SMBs run for SMBs and an extended platform backbone of a robust and their business with no upfront offered by its strategic business capital investments providing the partners that include the host Dubai one of the most advanced, infrastructure and business tools to Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) compete and deliver better services to as well as Virtuzone, National Bank their clients. This is a comprehensive of Ras Al Khaimah (RAKBANK), Amer fastest and widest network platform for SMBs built on innovation, for Government services, in addition customisation and value to meet to Etisalat solutions and Digital in the region their varying business needs during a Marketing services for SMBs. business lifecycle This hub serves as one-stop Etisalat ‘Hello Business Hub’ place designed to help businesses empowering SMBs get started by offering unique The opening of the ‘Hello Business propositions: company setup, SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 18
registration, insurance, banking, office three winners, who were announced equipment, combined with Etisalat’s by Etisalat at a live awards ceremony latest telecom and ICT products and viewed by the business industry around services. the globe.
This was a major milestone of Etisalat’s This year’s ‘Hello Business Pitch’ has global innovation strategy and indeed succeeded in attracting high- commitment to meet the needs of the potential startups and harnessing the country’s developing small and medium potential of aspiring entrepreneurs who business sector. are bringing innovative ideas to the market. Etisalat witnessed first-hand Success of Hello Business Pitch the thoroughness and the quality of SMBs are playing a key role in the the content of these pitches, and was a UAE economy in driving innovation, great opportunity for us as well to hear job creation and disruptive business about their entrepreneurial journey. models. Given the importance of this segment, Etisalat has been working YallaGive won first place for a brilliant closely with businesses across all pitch and received AED150,000. The SMEs. This is accelerating the digital sectors to cater to their requirements, second place winner Key2enable transformation of society with telecom ensure a successful a digital journey Assistive Technology was awarded and 5G playing a major role. Research and facilitate business continuity during AED120,000, while App4Legal states that 85% of respondents said these unprecedented times. placed third in the competition and their businesses have somewhat or walked away with AED80,000 for their greatly accelerated the implementation Etisalat’s ‘Hello Business Pitch’ is one of respective creative pitches. of technologies that digitally Etisalat’s strategic initiatives that aimed enable employee interaction and at supporting entrepreneurs and startup This competition showed the strength collaboration. businesses by providing them with an of the UAE’s future business leaders opportunity to pitch their business ideas and their passion for innovation and in front of an expert panel of judges who entrepreneurship. Our initiative is in line assessed their business model through with Etisalat’s continuous efforts to the strength of their pitch for a chance support SMBs and start-ups in the UAE to win grand prizes that help in growing and position Etisalat as the preferred their business. business partner of choice for SMBs.
This platform, in its second year, has Impact of the pandemic received an overwhelming response The pandemic has accelerated digital Hello Business Pitch is and is gaining popularity among transformation globally with a shift in aspiring entrepreneurs. Hundreds of investment priorities and changes in passionate startup businesses applied online behavior. Businesses and people one of Etisalat’s strategic since its launch in December 2019. globally today think differently about After an intensive and comprehensive how they work and live their lives. The initiatives that aimed at assessment of the applications based percentage of customer interactions on the creativity of the business models, that are digital has been accelerated by supporting entrepreneurs demonstrative scalability, and the ability several years. to effectively portray their potential and startup businesses business growth in a clear and concise With communication and connectivity way, Etisalat shortlisted 52 candidates gaining more significance and demand who progressed to the latter stages of more than ever during the pandemic, by providing them with an the competition. telcos play a critical role in closing this gap of digital readiness by becoming opportunity to pitch their The shortlisted businesses were then the engines of resilience and innovation. invited to pitch their business model Moving ahead, network modernisation business ideas online. Twenty-five businesses were and digital transformation play a key selected, who then got into a dedicated role in bringing this change to society. training session by Dr Petar Stojanov, Partner, Innovation and Future Strategy Remote working infrastructure, new at Black, on how to perfect their pitch. online services, technology skills Two more pitching sessions were and cyber security are now priorities conducted and the jury selected the top for governments, corporates and SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 19 SEPTEMBER 2021 INTER IE 20
Telecom Review caught up with Aji Ed, head of technology, mobile networks, Nokia who explained in details about the new generation of AirScale radio, massive MIMO antenna and baseband products that Nokia had recently launched. He also highlighted their relevance for the Middle East and Africa region.
okia’s constant efforts on innovation led to the recent launch of a new generation of AirScale radio, Aji Ed, head of technology, mobile networks, Nokia Nmassive MIMO antenna and baseband products. Can you give us some details on the products launched? The first networks became commercial only two years ago. We are still in the early phase of the 5G cycle. Over the Mobile operators next three years, the 5G market will triple in EMEA (+281%), double in APAC (+190%), and North America continues to grow by half (156%) over the same can now scale period. Another important thing to notice is that we expect the peak of the 5G cycle to be extended and longer than it was in 4G. The reason for this is that the first phase of 5G is mostly up their network about mobile broadband, but the second, overlapping phase comes with great Internet of Things capabilities (IoT) with ultra-reliability, low latency capacity for 5G and extreme IoT connectivity. We launched the below products to help our customers cope with with Nokia’s new increasing 5G capacity and spectrum demands: • AirScale massive MIMO antenna: The world’s lightest massive MIMO antenna, weighing just 17 kg, without radio products compromising on bandwidth or RF SEPTEMBER 2021 INTER IE 21
(radio frequency) output power. And non-contiguous spectrum and network Our new capacity plug-in cards are we don’t sacrifice performance for (RAN) sharing agreements. High RF optimized for 4G and 5G traffic, the weight. In fact, our new 17 kg light power output of 320W, as necessary area in which most of today’s and all of AirScale massive MIMO antenna for certain markets. near future’s traffic growth will happen. supports 400 MHz RF bandwidth (400 MHz IBW and 200 MHz OBW) Locations requiring the highest All of these are powered by Nokia necessary to support the highly capacity and beamforming capabilities, ReefShark SoC. popular 3GPP frequency band n78 are likely to need 64TRX massive MIMO (3.4GHz to 3.8GHz), with up to 240W antennas. Why is ReefShark SoC highly efficient? RF output power. The new portfolio How is it progressing? includes new 32TRX massive MIMO High instantaneous bandwidth is The use of our ReefShark custom antennas, 64TRX massive MIMO required to support non-contiguous silicon improves base station capacity antennas and 8T8R remote radio spectrum - fragmented spectrum and and connectivity and reduces product heads. the increasing number of 5G network cost and power consumption. The way • AirScale baseband: The world’s sharing cases. This is very important this works is that we develop some of most integrated 5G and Single RAN for Middle East and Africa market. the IP blocks for the chips, our partners baseband, up to 8-times the capacity develop other IP blocks, and then the of the previous generation and can Non-contiguous spectrum can partners package our IP, their IP and reduce power consumption by up to occur for instance when an operator 3rd party IP like ARM cores into a 75 percent. starts network operation with a given ReefShark System-on-Chip. block of spectrum within a band and What are the unique technical subsequently secures additional We have integrated ReefShark SoCs for capabilities of the newly launched spectrum, usually via a spectrum all base station computing functions, AirScale products and how are they auction. In this case, as long as the both in baseband and radio, including helping the operators in this region? two separate spectrum blocks fall Massive MIMO with beamforming. The The new AirScale solution help global within the RF bandwidth of the antenna share of ReefShark based products mobile operators scale up their network then the operator can continue to is constantly increasing, so that at capacity for 5G (and 2G, 3G, 4G) – use the same antenna and not have the end of this year (2021), far fewer flexibly, efficiently and at a reduced to deploy another, eliminating the configurations will still rely on FPGA as TCO. associated effort and costs. opposed to SoC. In 2022, the transition will be complete. And we have already The newly launched 32TRX massive Network (RAN) sharing cases is the next generation SoC’s in the works, MIMO radio is with 17 kg and this is another example. Now that the early in addition to the ones we have already. the industry’s lightest 32TRX massive adopters of 5G have rolled out their MIMO antenna. Importantly, our networks, we’re seeing a new wave of How do you see the relevance of these new AirScale 32TRX massive MIMO market entrants who are increasingly new AirScale products in Middle East antenna offers 400 MHz instantaneous considering network sharing to lower and Africa market? bandwidth in a compact 17 kg design; costs and speed-up network rollout, Middle East and Africa is a diverse and this combination makes it industry especially in areas where the return on market in terms of technology leading. Other vendors’ solutions investment might not be favorable. One adoption. The majority of Middle offer higher weights (19 kg) but only of the fundamental aims of network Eastern countries have deployed support 200 MHz. In many cases, sharing is to lower costs by sharing 5G already and now they are in the 32TRX mMIMO antennas offer the best the hardware. As the new mMIMO phase of expanding 5G with additional balance of performance, size/weight platforms support high bandwidth, spectrum and more dense urban and total cost of ownership – the sweet this enables both operators to use deployments. Also, in Africa, many spot. There are more parameters than a split-mode configuration single operators have now started deploying the number of transceivers and the antenna. This obviously reduces 5G. There are several discussions on weight: occupied and instantaneous the site footprint, wind load, cabling, network sharing scenarios. bandwidth, RF output power, form installation effort, energy consumption factor and ease of deployment, as and ultimately delivers the desired This is exactly where the new AirScale well as compliance with national lower costs. radio products would help with more regulations, to name a few. instantaneous bandwidths (e.g, 400 New AirScale baseband plug-in MHz) to cover even non-contiguous Our 64TRX massive MIMO antenna cards provide up to 3x the capacity of spectrum scenarios. We can offer the weighs 36 kg, which represents a the previous generation and enable right mix of 8TRX, 32TRX and 64TRX reduction of 14% over earlier versions power consumption reductions of up radios different types of deployment of 64TX mMIMO antenna. This massive to 75%. We increase the number of scenarios. Similarly, Airscale baseband MIMO antenna also supports 200 MHz connected cells up to 8x (depending plug-in card offers very high capacity for occupied bandwidth and 400 MHz on configurations). We have plug-in both 4G and 5G which is just the right instantaneous bandwidth. Ideal for cards that support 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G. time for 5G capacity expansions. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 22
How 5G business development was a major contributor to Kuwait carriers’ positive H1 2021 financial results The Middle East region—and particularly the GCC—has been amongst the global forerunners in 5G experimentation and deployment. Over recent years, many of these networks have scaled tremendously as operators start to monetize these investments. New 5G ecosystems have been built. Original 5G-powered applications have been introduced to local industries. Many organizations also had the foresight to invest in 5G digital infrastructure long before the current pandemic, and that investment has paid off significantly as network traffic has increased, and more businesses have gone digital.
ulf States such as user growth as well as 5G technology • Ooredoo is another operator which Kuwait, the UAE, efficiency and competencies: has benefitted greatly from its 5G and Saudi Arabia • Zain Kuwait has been profitable investments. In Kuwait, for instance, have become 5G with recorded 4% revenue growth in Ooredoo recently witnessed the leaders, and are H1 2021. Data revenue grew by 5% highest quarter-on-quarter 5G all in the top 10 Y-o-Y and represented 40% of total customer base growth ever reported. in terms of 5G revenue. Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi, coverageG and speed. Among these Vice-Chairman and Group CEO of What these and other examples countries, Kuwait was one of the first Zain Group commented: “The healthy reinforce is that 5G is indeed an countries to deploy 5G on a large growth in Kuwait was powered by its accelerator for operators’ businesses. scale. Since June 2019, three leading incomparable 5G network that sees Through insights into the development operators in Kuwait have started to the operator capturing the largest experience of the first-wave 5G deploy 5G on a nationwide scale. market share in the country.” markets—such as the GCC countries, Recent reports in H1 2021 show that • Looking to stc, Kuwait, as another China, and South Korea—it is evident 5G development of these operators has example, its first-half revenues that 5G business growth needs entered a new growth track. increased by 2.2% compared to the strategic patience, and after an 18 to same period a year ago. Engineer 24 months climbing period, operators Continued investment in 5G achieved Maziad Alharbi, stc’s Chief Executive have achieved strong revenue growth resilient financial performance Officer, pointed: “Due to the world- as well as profit growth due to the In Q1 2021, Kuwait demonstrated the wide fundamental changes imposed rapid increase of 5G subscribers and highest year-on-year improvement by the COVID-19 pandemic, business services. of 84% 5G download speed, this is represented in the increasing demand attributed to Kuwait’s visionary 5G for the traditional communication 5G user growth enables a positive investment. Most recently, telecom and digital services, stc has been business cycle services providers in Kuwait have able to achieve these results by • Through strong 5G investments in announced strong business results leveraging on the 5G network’s GCC countries, including Kuwait, a that have been bolstered by their 5G capabilities and efficiency.” positive business cycle is beginning SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 23
to emerge. This can be seen in three livelihoods, and which enhance This will undoubtedly bring many new key domains: national strength. 5G leased lines and exciting 5G-powered applications • Consumer market: In just 19 months provide the fastest time to market, to the GCC. These will not just benefit after 5G launching in the GCC, the and high QoS guaranteed wireless telecom operators, but businesses number of 5G mobile phone users connections, especially in areas with and countries overall. Analysys Mason exceeded 2 million; twice as fast as less fiber deployment. These 5G has projected that 5G will support the adoption in the 4G era. Especially features demonstrate irreplaceable economic benefits in Kuwait by in the second half of 2020, the value for a number of SMEs, as generating a cumulative increase of number of 5G mobile phone users well as campuses such as schools, more than USD1 billion in GDP until in the Middle East increased by hospitals, factories. 2025. The spread of digitalization in more than 350% after iPhone 12 5G Kuwait has a potential translation launched. In Kuwait, for instance, The 5G development journey is far from to 25,000 added jobs. For the the 5G user penetration rate has over. While rapid progress has been government, with greater 5G, cloud, almost reached 17%, which is the made, most agree that 5G’s potential is and AI innovation, it will deliver wide- highest among the GCC countries. still in its infancy in Kuwait. Global case ranging benefits through improving This is going to reach the threshold studies allude to this future potential. access to healthcare and education, of popularity of new things based reducing road congestion, increasing on Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovation For example, based on its Q2 2021 the attractiveness and likeability of Theory, in which the popularity of financial report, South Korea’s LG U+ cities, and inventing new ways of new things is led by a small number achieved sustained growth with a communication. of people, and once the 20 percent 39.8% increase in net income. As of the threshold is reached, it will enter a end of June, the LG U+’s 5G user base For pillar industries such as oil & gas, phase of rapid growth. It is predicted has more than doubled year-on-year digital transformation is becoming the that as more brands of high-, middle- to 3.73 million, accounting for 21.7% industry’s strategic vision. The large and low-end 5G mobile phones are of the total users. 5G demand has scale use of cutting-edge applications released, the number of 5G users in been spurred by LG U+’s continuous such as HD CCTV cameras, mobile the Middle East could reach 8 million development of value-added services surveillance, remote collaboration, by the end of this year. and wide-range of 5G use cases remote control of robots, AGV, and so • Home market: Since the pandemic, for both consumer and enterprise on will all greatly improve productivity. gaming, HD video, remote working, segments. AR shopping, remote All of these use cases need ubiquitous and remote education have become learning applications, VR content and reliable mobile connectivity top home applications. When fiber libraries, and telehealth applications with wide area coverage. 5G’s air is unavailable in many areas, 5G are just some of the new services interface capabilities, coverage, has provided remote working and accelerating 5G user migration. These latency, mobility, E2E security, and education for more than 380,000 in turn enable service providers to offer SLA guarantee can perfectly meet families, ensuring the availability package upgrades and increase ARPU. the requirements of such campus of networks and services. Kuwait More importantly, this service diversity applications. Indeed, 5G is actively alone accounts for more than 45% and innovation brings wholly new accelerating digital applications in this of 5G FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) experiences to 5G end users. industry. Some leading oil companies subscribers in the Middle East. in Kuwait are already conducting 5G • Industry market: 5G business leased The performance of Kuwait’s 5G market beta tests with operators to validate lines have grown rapidly since the in H1 2021 provides confidence that the productivity gain of innovative use second half of last year. Over the past the achievements of South Korea will cases. year, the number of 5G 2B leased continue to occur in the GCC countries. lines has grown from 230 to 12,000 The path forward in the Middle East, with about 40% of Continuously innovate 5G services to In summary, the strong growth in demand coming from Kuwait. During achieve new business success Kuwait’s 5G market in H1 2021 the curfew period in Kuwait, carriers It’s clear that 5G is becoming an has proven that the country’s and banks leveraged the unique accelerator for operators’ businesses visionary 5G investments have value of 5G mobile connectivity in the GCC. 5G is also an infrastructure been worth it. These not only bring to implement mobile banking, that underpins other segments of the business success to operators, but ensuring that important real-time digital economy. This value is echoed better connections and superior and contactless services can be in governments’ national development experiences to individuals, families, accessed anywhere. Meanwhile, strategies, which are taking the and enterprises. The continuous the Kuwait Ministry of Education is opportunity to transition from oil- innovation in 5G technologies will planning to connect hundreds of dependency, and which spotlight digital further enhance these networks, schools through 5G to enables better transformation, connected cities, and promote more innovative applications, connections, as well as more and inclusive digital access as instrumental and bring more business value to more intelligent application scenarios to reaching long-term socioeconomic operators, as well as more value to which are significant to peoples’ goals. society. SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 24
Qatar: a model for IPv6 adoption
The internet as we know it is transitioning to the latest Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) to fulfill the ever-growing need for internet connectivity. IPv6 promises long- term global and enterprise-level benefits and various businesses and technical service providers have already moved to IPv6-only or dual stack network driven operations.
espite the current creating an advanced technology-ready vision 2030, Qatar’s Communications IPv4’s falling ICT infrastructure. Regulatory Authority’s (CRA) IPv6 availability of IP task force met with stakeholders and addresses and its With its modest ratings in the global the Réseaux IP Européens Network increasing cost IPv6 arena, Qatar’s foresight in Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) at on the secondary implementing IPv6 to enable next- the CRA headquarters in May 2018 market, many generation telecommunications to create a roadmap for the next-gen Dcountries in the Gulf region continue to technologies such as 5G and Internet of model of connectivity. As a socially struggle with IPv6 deployment, barring things (IoT) to connect multiple devices and economically growing nation, exceptions such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, was quite on the target. Moreover, Qatar the requirement of an advanced ICT the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. was ranked first globally in the rate infrastructure to act as a catalyst of internet adoption among the total for the development of emerging To put things into perspective, as per population with a percentage reaching technologies and smart solutions was Akamai, on August 19, 2021, IPv6 99%, according to The Global State of key for Qatar. The IPv6 Council Qatar, adoption in KSA ranks 9th at 39.9%, Digital 2021 report. a chapter of the International IPv6 UAE ranks 11 at 37.4% whereas Qatar Forum under Eng. Abdulla Jassmi, ranks 121 at 0.1%. Taking baby steps technical affairs department manager, To ensure a smooth transition from CRA dedicated to the advancement and However, Qatar has been steadily IPv4 to IPv6 to support the development promotion of IPv6 best practices and upping its ante when it comes to and achievement of Qatar national integration. SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 25
The task force operated on three main As academia were the leaders in countries. The first step was setting phases: adopting IPv6 across the organizations a clear national goal by providing a in Qatar, they were set as a key clear strategy, including the action Assessment: In this phase, the model who encouraged, shared their and plans, cost analysis required for assessment of the status of IPv6 experience and lessons learned, and a smooth transition of IPv6 across adoption, as well as evaluation of all the activities they had performed the nation. This is followed by the the means required for the transition throughout the implementation of dual- identification and assigning of roles across the stakeholders, was made. stack solutions, where both IPv4 and and responsibilities related to the A realistic roadmap was prepared IPv6 co-exist on the same network, to project throughout the process. and developed based on the relevant the other industries. readiness, needs and requirements for Since it was a learning by doing the transition journey. Ever-present challenges process, plans and agenda had to be Challenges were addressed to provide tweaked based on the progress made Awareness: This phase aimed at suitable solutions to encourage by the ICT ecosystem as a whole. providing guidance and supportive stakeholders and the ICT ecosystem in This involved providing technical and assistance to organizations to develop the State of Qatar to move forward. non-technical support, coordinating their migration strategy and layout and collaborating, providing IPv6 test their action plans for the transition. “It was a learning by doing approach, labs along with key stakeholders, This consisted of many campaigns, something that required studying, providing technical guidelines for the initiated by the regulator along with the testing, implementing, and learning implementation and the vulnerabilities leading stakeholders such as academic from the outcomes,” said Salma Sulaiti, of IPv6. institutions, the internet service head of standards and next-generation providers, governmental entities, technology of CRA during a Telecom Qatar managed to overcome its banking industry, aviation, oil, and gas. Review Webinar on IPv6. challenges by providing smart measurable solutions, addressing the Implementation: Every national “We needed to adopt a plan based on challenges encountered and providing transition strategy of such a the progress that had been made by the the solutions. It also kept the level scale would require a focused ICT ecosystem. There was resistance of motivation high in terms of the implementation phase with national as it was a change within the industries. benefits of IPv6 implementation and deadlines. This phase focused People needed to have a new mindset keeping the channel of communication on gaining hands-on experience, to learn new skills and put new plans open and transparent. A continual test, learning from trials and testings to ensure a smooth transition,” she trials, and pilot projects were essential through dedicated testing labs for stressed. Throughout the process, it to achieve success. this transition. Key stakeholders were was important to convince people and identified to become the focal points promote the benefits and advantages “I wouldn’t deny that there have for the transitional requirements to of IPv6,” she adds. been some drawbacks, but to move encourage and promote IPv6 transition forward, we needed to get ourselves and implementation throughout the One of the key challenges was comfortable throughout this journey as industries. These key stakeholders were vulnerabilities and security threats a whole ecosystem,” stresses Sulaiti. responsible for enabling IPv6 starting related to IPv6. Therefore, it was from their organizations and the important to provide awareness For the world at large to move away organizations they led. and education about IPv6 security. from IPv4 and switch to an IPv6-only The taskforce worked with leading public internet, wide-scale deployment Facilitation and support universities in Qatar to develop security is essential. Harnessing technology The key requirement for facilitation guidelines for IPv6. Moreover, the and innovation to drive a sustainable was ensuring that the technical teams COVID-19 pandemic posed many economic agenda while improving had the technical expertise required challenges including social distancing quality of life and enhancing the for this initiative. CRA in collaboration which has heightened the need for a delivery of public services in sectors, with RIPE NCC conducted a technical robust ICT infrastructure for remote such as transportation, logistics, IPv6 training course with the primary communications and ensuring work healthcare, sports and environment is objective of internet resources continuity. The importance of IPv6 for of prime importance. management capacity building as part all types of communication services of a series of training courses under solutions is key to advancement There can be a lot at stake when the IPv6 National Implementation towards digital transformation. taking on technologically demanding Strategy. Technical training was world events such as the World provided in coordination with regional Lessons learned Cup with billions of dollars spent. and international organizations to Qatar’s success in charting a smooth However, the returns can be massively meet the requirements and support for transition from IPv4 to IPV6 offers rewarding. Qatar could well be in that the transition. Equally important was some important lessons that can position with robust IPv6-enabled knowledge sharing across all industries. be emulated by other developing connectivity. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 26
Digital services: A solution or a problem for the climate’s challenge? A preliminary response based on a quantitative approach Digital services have been indicted for contributing to climate change, and in early 2020, Alternatives Economiques magazine titled “The unsustainable growth of digital”. The digital boom certainly exacerbates the carbon footprint, but can it also be part of the solution? How can we rigorously study its impact?
he carbon footprint • Direct household energy consumption Most of the digital carbon footprint measures the (16%) includes emissions from homes comes from electricity. This energy is greenhouse gas (electricity, heating) and individual used to power equipment in France with (GHG) emissions transportation nuclear energy but also to build them caused by population This footprint can be further broken in China with a very carbon intensive consumption. Unlike down by consumed products. Thus, electricity. emissions produced we can define a “digital” perimeter that acrossT the territory, the carbon footprint includes telecom and IT services. The positive impact of digital: includes GHG emissions associated Abatement with imported goods and services, and The carbon footprint of the digital Digital services are also part of the excludes those associated with exported sector, mainly from imported emissions solution because they help avoid ones. Translated into digital services, we emissions. The IPCC predicts an will count in the domestic production “abatement” impact of various initiatives, The carbon footprint and “imported” the emissions related to the telecom including digital. emissions operators’ network power supply in The French carbon footprint, for France (mobile, fiber) as well as the The positive effects on the climate are example, can be broken down as follows: companies’ IT and telecom services in calculated based on a series of “use • Domestic production of goods and France (private networks, data centers) cases”. One example is to examine how services (27%) includes the energy - This accounts for 10% of the footprint. “smart meters” or “remote control of air consumed (e.g. gas) to heat industrial Imported emissions represent 80% of conditioning” can save energy. Various buildings, power electrical equipment the emissions. They essentially involve bodies or researchers have carried out (mobile antennas) as well as the all equipment produced in Asia, in global studies. Their results show a gasoline needed to run business addition to the impact of data centers positive impact of the digital of around 4 vehicles located abroad. Households emit the to 8%, but some go much further, such • Import of raw materials and products remaining 10%, by powering televisions as GESI, which announces 20%. (57%) includes the carbon consumed and boxes at home. abroad to extract imported minerals The most impacted sectors are (from Australia for example) but also The total French carbon footprint was Transportation (smart cities) thanks the carbon emitted by Chinese coal to estimated in 2018 at 749 Million Tons to oil consumption savings following produce consumer goods (machine of CO2, and that of digital services at the use of autonomous electric cars, tools, smartphones,...) sold in France around 12MTC02 equivalent to 1.7%. intelligent traffic regulation, and car SEPTEMBER 2021 OPINIONS 27
sharing practices; • Energy with solutions for optimized use (savings), production of electrical energy (less waste) and management of renewable energies (SmartGrid) • The decline in business travel thanks to the development of collaborative solutions • The industry can benefit from logistics automation of connected factories, reducing the movement of machinery or streamlining recycling processes.
We can venture to apply these solutions to the French carbon footprint by applying these formulas to the three categories: production, imports and consumption.
The “net” footprint and the specifics of France Based on the GSMA’s extensive analysis, the gains would come mainly from transportation, which accounts for a share of emissions in France (29%) larger than the European average (21%). A quarter of the estimated gains would come from the decrease in traffic brought about by the use of collaboration solutions (video conferencing) and another half from connected mobility solutions linked to IoT (carpooling, traffic management, etc.). The total reduction would be 10%, which would be applied to the 125MtCO2 of road transport and the 23.4MtCO2 of air transport. This represents -3% for companies and -6% for households.
The gains related to power energy are not very significant in France due to the predominance of low-carbon nuclear energy.
The abatement effect on imported emissions mainly involves the manufacturing processes of Chinese smartphone factories, which essentially consume electricity. We have selected a rate of -2.4% inspired by the GSMA, quite far from the GESI figure ...10 times always localized. Thus a purely local how Asia manages its electricity mix and higher. vision or a purely global vision offer quite uses digital technology to optimize (from different realities. In a world of low- an emissions standpoint) its industrial Different visions carbon electricity, the digital footprint and logistics processes which ultimately In conclusion, while the digital footprint is lower and the benefits of abatement hold the key to digital’s net carbon is starting to be relatively well known, are mainly concentrated on transport. footprint. this is not the case for abatements. The balance sheet can thus appear On the other hand, we must not lose very positive locally. But the majority of David Erlich, business consulting sight of the fact that emissions are emissions are imported; they depend on director, Sofrecom SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 28
The whys and hows of telecom infrastructure automation
Digital transformation is everywhere — literally. From the way we make conversation up to how we make transactions, leaning towards the automated approach is convenient and inevitable. This is applicable as well to the telecom industry as a whole; particularly on the backend.
n this regard, telcos face have no choice but to embrace a fully Why automation matters challenges to optimize their digitalized ecosystem. Automation is Four words. It makes things better. services and operations one of the driving forces in the telecom Considering the emergence of 5G in a continuously. Otherwise, sector, influencing both tower operators smarter world, telecom infrastructure facing the risk of being in in their infrastructure management and must adapt to automation now (not a saturated market exists carriers’ duty to the end-users. later). “I think in the coming years with many competitors and worldwide, 5G will be exhaustively Ivendors vying for the same consumers. The latest data shows that the developed. This will demand more The goal then is obviously to deliver orchestration and network function productivity, more operations, and more the highest levels of connectivity and virtualization (NFV) market is coordination in terms of extending the improve customer service. What’s projected to surpass $70 billion reach of the coverage of 5G, particularly the best way to do this? Network by 2024. Moreover, by 2025, telco in big cities, where there will be more automation. investments in AI will reach around density,” said Luis del Valle Alemán, $11.2 billion and 80% of mobile network chief revenue officer at Atrebo. With emerging technologies like operators (MNOs) are expected to artificial intelligence (AI), machine have automated 40% of their network Building faster and scalable means learning (ML), IoT, and 5G, telcos operations. of running the business is what telco SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 29
infrastructure automation brings to the performance of these deployments, strategy, threat analyses and security table. Technology is being applied to automation is requisite. assessments must be adapted to an replace legacy systems and customers evolving threat landscape, avoiding any become at the core of the environment. Several major trends also determine colossal damage. why automation is indispensable. Tower No doubt, the need for seamless, companies need reliable realtime visibility The current model of telecom network never-ending connectivity, increased into what’s installed on their structures operations needs to revamp to keep competition, and corporate accountability and what capacity for installing additional up with a more advanced and digitized made automation mandatory for the equipment to accommodate the rapid world. Automation will therefore be a vital telecom industry. Some key benefits rollout of 5G. Also putting pressure on step for the new operating model of not this will bring include efficient data flow, tower companies to continue delivering only towers but the transformation of increased asset security, and improved strong returns are new competitors, communication service providers (CSPs) revenue per user. higher investor expectations, and a rise in to being digital service providers (DSPs). M&A and tower restructuring deals. Compared to orthodox, automation In the journey from CSP to DSP, can process information at a much With relevant assets and tech-focused many network operators today have higher rate. With this smart method, a resources, the coveted shift from orchestrated network and IT domains successful digital transformation may traditional to digital will constantly but few have the capability to orchestrate take place. With telecom infrastructures happen. end-to-end (E2E) services. Thus, the being physically present and susceptible implementation and provisioning of to risks, automation can enable fraud- How automation works automation use cases across all radio proof control of assets and increase the With automation, the network has access network (RAN) types and vendors protection of equipment. By automating the groundwork for more innovation, must be done. Only then can E2E telco infrastructure, companies can also improved efficiency, sustained success, orchestration happen. In line with this, develop a data-driven business model and a sustainable structure. Tower building 5G standalone (SA) architectures leading to an increased market share and Automation Alliance emphasized the two in the next couple of years delivers the reduced cost, energy, and waste. most important automation ingredients: full promise of network slicing and tailor- As we continue to move toward a intelligence which drives change and fit connectivity for telcos. more interconnected world, investing programmability which coordinates the in connectivity infrastructure becomes responses and adaptations. critical. People’s lives have become digital-centered with 5G, IoT, and cloud Some of the key technologies towercos applications propelling the demand for must focus on are AI/ML, tower asset connectivity further. monitoring, robotic process automation (RPA), digital twin, and infrastructure Hence, carriers and service providers security. are especially working toward delivering expansive, uninterrupted connections • Telecom tower companies should with lightning-fast speeds which rely on take advantage of AI/ML-led intelligent a robust tower infrastructure. To make tools for functions such as automated this new generation of connectivity a dispatching, preventive maintenance, The latest data shows reality, tower operators must have a and optimized field visits. targeted and strategic approach for • By leveraging drone-led tower that the orchestration modernization and expansion. inspection, for example, improves the efficiency of operations by tracking and network function To remain competitive with carriers, your tower devices and assets in real- carefully monitoring performance and time. virtualization (NFV) market providing a pathway for additional 5G • Various tasks such as invoice expansion will become increasingly processing, event-based maintenance, is projected to surpass $70 important for telco towers in the coming backup and recovery processes, and months and years. Particularly as smart dispute handling with landlords and cities develop and mature, small cells, vendors can be resolved by RPA. billion by 2024 distributed antenna systems (DAS), • Through the digital twin technology, and rooftop sites can help enhance the towercos can leverage operational network density in heavily populated efficiencies in planning, design, urban areas. deployment, along with network optimization and insights into new and This type of infrastructure plays a larger innovative business models. role in connectivity moving forward, • To deliver and maintain an effective, and to ensure the best coverage and end-to-end network security SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 30
IoT connectivity: Challenges and strategies “Slowly, at a pace measured in decades, we are shifting to technologies whose main character is that they can be combined and configured endlessly for fresh purposes,” said W. Brian Arthur, a renowned author and economist.
oday, digital integration makes them into a whole. world, billions of web-enabled devices transformation With the growing IoT demand, this are turning the world into a massive is influenced by process does not come easy. Many digital hub. Aiming for smarter homes, four simultaneous organizations are facing difficulties offices, vehicles, and other operations, technology shifts: with their IoT implementation and IoT connectivity encounters various cloud computing, management, highlighting the problems such as the following: big data processing, importance of businesses to overcome enterpriseT mobility, and the Internet the potential struggles that they may • Scalability — The ability of the of Things (IoT). Each technology has face along the way. underlying infrastructure to scale reached a certain level of maturity is necessary as more devices yet organizations still face challenges Full IoT value does not rely on just get connected. In 2021 alone, of upgrading to these solutions and connecting a few devices together. reports indicate that there will be delivering business value. Being a “system of systems,” 35.82 billion IoT devices installed IoT is made up of many different worldwide. In line with this, IoT Among the four, IoT is one of the most components and expertise. Hence, scaling also unleashes a tsunami of apparent topics to tackle because to revolutionize a business model new forms of data as organizations it extends and complements the and use cases, end-to-end systems add more IoT connectivity devices, capabilities of other technologies integration and highly-coordinated such as sensors, gateways, routers, including software-defined networking initiatives must be designed. or cameras. (SDN) that is becoming more evident across industries. Biggest IoT connectivity challenges The scalability issue is multifold and The way people live, communicate and encompasses other matters like cost, Connectivity is a fundamental building do business has been touched, one complexity, and bandwidth efficiency. block of IoT. It links things together and way or another, by IoT. All around the McKinsey Digital reported that 127 SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 31
devices hook up to the internet for the investments being done in healthcare, processing, application, business, first time, every second. Thus, service manufacturing, automotive, retail, and security) at-scale to handle providers, network operators, and other telecommunications, finance, and large volumes of device and sensor digital enablers must implement a cloud, among others. data to be collected and analyzed, connectivity solution to keep up with leading to informed operational and the maintenance and management Yet to ensure IoT success, it’s vital to strategic decisions. load as the network grows. understand the immediate needs of • More IoT use cases correlate with the connected infrastructure to map economic success, an analysis • Compatibility — With IoT’s out all integral technical requirements. derived from a McKinsey research. expansion, many different An IoT initiative might start small, but Thus, greater widespread usage technologies compete to become enterprises and solution providers forces a cultural shift into the the standard which causes must think big and prepare to scale organization wherein companies difficulty upon IT integration. Other sooner than later. must be capable to adapt to any compatibility issues may also arise technology gaps, particularly in from diversified operating systems, By and large, IoT connectivity talents and expertise. In this case, non-unified cloud services, and a has evolved from point-to-point a “go big” approach may seem lack of standardized machine-to- communications into complex, counterintuitive, and depending on machine (M2M) protocols. multicarrier ecosystems. As a result, the business’ capacity, opting for a enterprises are demanding more “slowly-but-surely” integration may Users must keep their devices from their IoT solution providers for work for long-term. updated and patched for continued sophisticated and up-to-date services. • Increasing the potential value compatibility. As an example, when from IoT activities can be derived an IoT device communicates with Here are some IoT strategies to keep from accessing all sensor data. another device and both devices in mind during the planning and Currently, there are many publicly- run on different software versions, execution stages: hosted IoT platforms that provide performance issues can occur. With data access, storage and analytics regards to this, synchronization and • Design and test solutions that are for applications — but vigilance is interoperability of data flow between highly flexible and configurable are the key. Learn which data should different smart devices in an IoT priority. Flexibility will demonstrate exist in a public environment and platform are also difficult to achieve. the device performance under actual which should remain private. operation modes. The solution Establishing a hybrid strategy • Security — Can you imagine that an should be simple, inexpensive, can help continued relevance and average IoT device gets attacked just and able to be used in both R&D competitive advantage by retaining five minutes after it goes online? This and manufacturing to minimize data ownership. trend is only expected to grow as correlation issues across the • Commonly known as “digital twin,” more devices connect to the internet. different phases of development. this virtualized replication of the Symantec revealed that the majority • IoT devices must undergo environment is suitable for testing of cyberattacks on IoT devices are compliance testing which includes or development activities in parallel also a result of network routers, radio standards conformance to live production. A best practice with an average of 5,200 attacks per and carrier acceptance tests, to do is automating conformance router on a monthly basis. and regulatory compliance tests and regression testings to confirm such as radio frequency (RF), compatibility between the IoT Apart from the scalability and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), platform and applications. compatibility challenges mentioned and specific absorption rate (SAR) above, successful IoT deployment tests. This will reduce risk of failures There’s no single path to IoT success. would also need to resolve traditional and guarantee that a device is up to With the current pace of digital network security challenges. These the mark. transformation globally, companies include device identity, personal • Coexistence testing measures have their own strategies that are data protection, access control, and assesses how a device will deemed to be applicable on their distributed denial of service (DDoS) operate in a crowded, mixed- industry or scenario. Some companies attack, authentication, and other signal environment. With various focus on connecting existing confidentiality issues. End-to-end IoT devices interacting with each products to be more attractive and security in practice requires the ability other, it is important to assess the beneficial to customers while others to make changes quickly so that potential risk in maintaining wireless harness opportunities for operational problems can be fixed before they are performance in the presence of improvements that increase efficiency exploited. unintended signals found in the and lower costs. Additionally, several same operating environment. companies put their bets on creating Essential strategies to implement • Organizations must design and new products or remaking business Company investments in IoT can be up implement each layer of an IoT models that may improve their line of to $15 trillion in 2025. These include architecture (perception, transport, work substantially. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPERATORS’ NEWS 32
Etisalat Group appoints new CEO for UAE operations
Eng. Hatem Dowidar, CEO, Etisalat Group, Group and the Executive Office of the said, “Etisalat is thrilled by the joining Government of Dubai. of Masood as CEO for Etisalat UAE operations. With his recognized career Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, CEO, and a strong drive for results, Masood Etisalat UAE operations, said, “It is is a true people leader who will focus a privilege to join Etisalat one of the on growing Etisalat UAE even further world’s leading telecom groups and through achieving operational efficiency ranked the strongest brand across all and generating value by organic growth categories in the Middle East and Africa. strategies. In the new normal where This exciting appointment represents smart and digital services dominate a great milestone and a motive to work Etisalat Group announces the the scene, Etisalat backed by one of continuously towards adding value for appointment of Mr. Masood M. Sharif the most advanced portfolios of smart the services and solutions provided Mahmood as Etisalat UAE operations services and solutions in the region to Etisalat customers, capitalizing on chief executive officer (CEO), effective continues to attract and empower UAE’s our employees’ great talent, passion, from August 29, 2021. leading talent in the digital field. We and capabilities, while realizing the wish him great success in his new role overall objectives of the company. Reporting to Etisalat Group CEO Eng. at Etisalat, home to the fastest mobile Inspired by the continuous support and Hatem Dowidar, this new position is network on earth”. wise leadership of the UAE, Etisalat part of Etisalat Group’s ongoing and will continue deploying the latest agile transformation strategy that Mr. Masood is a widely experienced innovative technologies to enrich the targets diversifying and exploring new senior executive with a strong digital experience of customers and growth opportunities, accelerating operational and financial track record communities, bringing the country to the business development in the digital spanning over 20 years primarily in the forefront in global ICT ranking. ” field, expanding geographical telecom and technology sectors. He presence, and maximizing operational held leading positions throughout his His expertise in operational and financial efficiency. career including being the CEO of Yahsat fields led to developing high-performing and the vice president at Mubadala’s teams, establishing creative work culture, The appointment also marks the Information and Communications and setting development strategies company’s relentless efforts to Technology (ICT) unit. Additionally, he that elevated business performance. maintain its leading position in digital served on the boards of SHUAA Capital, He holds an MBA with a concentration transformation and continue providing Emirates Integrated Telecommunications in Finance from McGill University in innovative services and solutions to Company (Du), and Abu Dhabi Financial Canada, and a Bachelor’s Degree in all customers, while investing in UAE Group (ADFG), among other expertise Computer Systems Engineering from nationals and empowering them. gained in positions at Dubai Investment Boston University in the United States. Zain KSA supports CITC’s national roaming initiative
services throughout all Saudi Al-Sadhan, lauded the introduction regions and cities, with a particular of the National Roaming service, focus on remote villages and desert emphasizing Zain KSA’s role as a areas. It would cover around 21,000 key partner of CITC on this initiative. villages and desert lands across 147 This is in line with the company’s governorates throughout the Kingdom, unwavering commitment to supporting serving over 5 million users. nationwide efforts to achieve inclusive digital transformation and deliver the According to CITC’s plan, the initial best telecommunications and data In partnership with the phase of the initiative will be launched services throughout the Kingdom. Communications and Information in Asir and then it will be completed in Technology Commission (CITC) and the rest of the Kingdom’s regions by It is worthy to note that the National other telecom operators, namely stc the end of 2021. Following this, mobile Roaming service will be part of and Mobily, Zain KSA announced users can utilize any available telecom the package offered by the service its support to the National Roaming network whenever they are outside operator at no additional cost incurred initiative launched by Saudi’s their carrier network’s coverage area. by the user. The authority added that communication authority. This local the local roaming service includes all roaming service aims to maximize the Chief business and wholesale officer at services such as voice, Internet, and inclusiveness of telecommunication Zain KSA, Eng. Saad bin Abdul Rahman SMS. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPERATORS’ NEWS 33
Etisalat assures customers of smooth 2G switch-off
telecommunications sector, particularly in the digital front. The frequencies and bands utilised by the 2G network will be allocated to more advanced networks.
The 5G network has tremendous capabilities to support the acceleration of digital transformation that leads to new prospects and opportunities in many sectors. As a major enabler of the next generation of broadband service and the Internet of Things, investing In line with the Telecommunications switch off from 2G to advanced 4G/5G in 5G is necessary as it delivers faster and Digital Government Regulatory networks. speeds and ultra-low latency, providing Authority’s (TDRA) announcement on access to all kinds of applications 2G network gradually being switched Etisalat is currently coordinating and services and will drive innovation, off by the end of 2022, Etisalat with all business sectors that are still efficiency and productivity to a wide assures all customers that it will using the 2G network for machine to range of business and industrial continue to support this transition and machine (M2M) communications such sectors of the UAE. modernisation of the network. as industrial, vehicle-tracking devices, gateways and Point Of Sale devices 5G network is the backbone of many The 2G sunset is keeping with Etisalat’s (POS). Offers are made to upgrade and emerging technologies such as strategy to support the UAE vision replace those devices to support 4G Internet of Things, cloud computing, 2030, bringing digital transformation network and LTE CATM1 IoT Network big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, in the country as well as enhancing that will help achieve operational autonomous technologies, augmented UAE’s ICT ranking in the global market. efficiency with better connectivity and and virtual reality, among others. With Etisalat is ensuring a smooth transition lower network latency. the shutdown of older generations of by educating all its customers including networks, individuals and societies individuals, enterprise, and small and The 2G network switch-off is aimed will witness the benefits of these medium businesses and providing at keeping pace with the rapid and technologies as an essential part of the alternate devices which support the continuous developments of the digital future.
Zain KSA is digital partner for MCIT’s ThinkTech initiative The competition targeted the youth by highlighting inspiring local and category from 9 to 14 years old international experiences in this field. to teach them electronic games programming, discover their talents In confirmation of its leadership in and support and guide them in this the field of developing the electronic field. The competition focused at gaming environment in the Kingdom, enabling them to live a different Zain Saudi Arabia ranked first in the cognitive experience through Game Mode report issued by the In its continuous commitment to introduction to the technical aspect of Communications and Information support and develop young national game development, training them on Technology Commission (CITC) for talents in the digital entertainment different development environments the second quarter of 2021 AD, in 4 sector in the Kingdom, Zain Saudi with expert mentors in the field. electronic games: Fortnite, FIFA 21, Arabia sponsored the second edition The competition has attracted APEX Legends and Dota2, and the of the “Make and Play it for Juniors” 4,600 participants from all over the average response time of mobile competition, in the category of Kingdom. internet in the city of Riyadh. Zain digital strategic sponsor, as part of Saudi Arabia also announced, at the its partnership with the Ministry of In addition to the “Make and Play” beginning of this year, its cooperation Communications and Information competition, Zain Saudi Arabia with NVIDIA, the leading electronic Technology (MCIT) within the recently announced its strategic games provider in computing, to ThinkTech initiative. This was in sponsorship of the “ThinkTech launch the GeForce NOW cloud partnership with the Saudi Electronic Talk” forum, which aims to spread gaming platform, exclusively, on the Sports Federation, within the 2021 awareness about the industry and fifth generation network (5G) in the “Players Without Borders” season. development of electronic games Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPERATORS’ NEWS 34
Etisalat increases Maroc Telecom ownership stake to 53%
and West Africa. It offers telecom services such as mobile and fixed voice and broadband, and mobile money.
The cost of acquisition, funded by bank borrowings, is subject to change based on prevailing market conditions such as foreign exchange rates. The closing of the transaction is also subject to fulfilling certain Etisalat Group recently signed a investment in Société de Participation conditions. $505 million agreement to acquire dans les Télécommunications (SPT). the 8.7% stake of the Abu Dhabi In May 2014, Etisalat successfully Karim Bennis, chief financial officer, Fund For Development in Etisalat held 91.3% of Maroc Telecom Etisalat Group, said in a statement, Investment North Africa LLC (EINA). through EINA, valued at $5.6 billion. “Accordingly, this will positively This eventually increases Etisalat’s State-owned Abu Dhabi Fund for impact Etisalat Group’s consolidated ownership of EINA to 100% as well Development held the rest. net profits due to lower minority as its ownership of Maroc Telecom interest of group consolidated results Group from 48.4% to 53.0%. This is Maroc Telecom Group is the largest and potentially increase future made possible as EINA holds shares telecom operator in Morocco, having dividends from Maroc Telecom in Maroc Telecom Group through operations in 11 countries in Morocco Group.”
Telecom Egypt records 88% hike in H1 net profit, revenue up 16% Commenting on the results, Adel Hamed, managing director and chief executive officer, said, “Top line grew 16% YoY mainly owed to significant data growth of 31% YoY, which, in parallel to the continued cost containment efforts, sustained the improve profitability. EBITDA margin came in at 39% and operating profit grew almost 60% YoY, trickling down to an organic net profit growth of 54% YoY.”
“Our focus on cash flow is also evident in this quarter’s results and in the recent announcement of a modified Telecom Egypt posted net profit of 3.9 18% YoY, and mobile customers 21% shareholders’ agreement with Vodafone billion Egyptian pounds ($249.20 million) YoY. Group. In the first half of the year, we for the first half of 2021, up 88% from have doubled our net operating cash the same period last year, as a result of a EBITDA came in at EGP 6.7bn, growing flow and reached a positive free cash strong operational performance, growth 33% YoY and recording a strong margin flow both including and excluding in investment income from Vodafone, of 39% on a higher margin revenue mix Vodafone Egypt’s dividends of EGP and FX gains, according to a company and cost containment efforts. 1bn and EGP 0.2bn, respectively, the statement. latter being a first in five years, which In-service CapEx pegged at EGP 2.4bn, is a substantial milestone especially Consolidated revenue settled at EGP 14% of sales, while cash CapEx stood considering the EGP 2.4bn spectrum 17.4bn, growing 16% YoY on a 31% YoY at EGP 6.0bn, excluding spectrum fees, payment in Q1,” he added. hike in data followed by voice and other representing 35% of top line. Net debt enterprise revenues. amounted to 19bn, representing 1.4x of “We are also happy to inform you that annualized EBITDA compared to 1.6x in we have received the second tranche Customer base continued to grow FY 2020, while the effective interest rate of Vodafone Egypt’s exceptional YoY across the board with fixed voice declined to 5.7% compared to 6.9% in H1 distribution of EGP 3.6bn in July,” customers increasing 6% YoY, fixed data 2020. he said. SEPTEMBER 2021 OPERATORS’ NEWS 35 du urges device upgrade prior to 2G network closure
Authority (TDRA). This is in line with quality, high-speed data connection, mobile technology developments, as and higher internet surfing and well as increasing demands to improve downloading speeds. Mobile users who users’ overall mobile experience. The are currently using a 3G device on the 2G network (GSM) shutdown will be 2G network can change their settings to phased out across the UAE and is 3G to avoid any service disruption and expected to be completed by the end of continue using their devices as normal. 2022. du, from Emirates Integrated Mobile phones available at all du stores Telecommunications Company As 2G services will no longer be and e-shop are 3G, 4G, and 5G ready. (EITC), will be shutting down its 2G available, customers still using 2G du customers are encouraged to visit networks in the near future as per the devices will need to switch to 3G/4G/5G the telco operator’s official website to direction of The Telecommunications mobile-supported devices. Upgrading learn more about the 2G shutdown and and Digital Government Regulatory devices will enable high-definition voice how to upgrade their devices. stc’s sustainability report: 18 bn riyals spent on local content, 40% drop in water consumption sponsors 292 projects that address Platform’ to ensure it builds on the environmental and social issues. successes of 2020 and aims to make sustainability more transparent and With stc’s adoption of responsible best accessible while raising the profile of practices and raising standards in the activities, services and community ICT sector and achieving the principle initiatives, along with raising awareness of sustainability, the report revealed its for critical issues. efforts to decrease water use by 40% from 509,768m3 in 2019 to 303,789m3 To achieve this end, stc has put in place in 2020, in addition to reducing the three core services - a Volunteering total electricity consumption by 16%, Program where stc employees have stc’s 2nd sustainability report revealed gasoline by 18%, and the use of paper the opportunity to enhance their that spending on local content has documents in procurement by 100%. participation in sustainable community increased to more than 18 billion Riyals. development; Technical Enablement This is in line with the group’s aim The report reinforces the organisation’s - a service that digitally transforms to achieve sustainability and create message that in all its functions and charities and non-profit organisations a positive environmental impact by activities, it is fully committed to by providing them with digital solutions supporting community development managing the business in the most and platforms; and Knowledge Sharing through the digital transformation sustainable way possible. stc has - training courses used to build process in the Kingdom. stc also been developing a ‘Sustainability awareness of sustainability issues.
Ooredoo advocates shift to a managed end-to-end IoT service Ooredoo Qatar’s new whitepaper of managed services when IoT is positive business outcomes are entitled ‘Device and Operational becoming regarded as a basic digital essential. Support: The Overlooked Components transformation requirement. for Successful IoT Deployment’ Ooredoo’s secure and reliable highlights how businesses can A key prediction in the latest networks and experience in increase operational efficiency and whitepaper is that managed end- provisioning single parts and enhance products, solutions, and to-end IoT service will play a crucial assembling holistic systems alike, customer engagement. role in enhancing products, solutions, allow for the meeting of business and customer engagement while needs through an IoT portfolio. The newly-published report pinpoints pioneering the creation of top-line These include IoT Connect, as the importance of both devices revenue streams such as digital well as vertical-specific solutions and operational support to the services. Under a managed IoT such as asset management, waste IoT sector’s continued success. regime, the twin roles of devices management, industrial metering, Ooredoo seeks to clarify the benefits and operational support to ensure and fleet management. SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 36
Role of AI and ML in enterprise networks
The network is the pillar of any modern enterprise business operation. The absence of efficient connectivity would simply mean disruptions in the flow of information for companies operating with branches scattered around countries. Indeed, the ever-growing size and complexity of enterprise networks demand investments to build, maintain, administer and keep them secure. Hence, it has become binding for organizations to constantly keep track of the network infrastructure’s rapid evolution and dynamism.
oreover, the applications and use cases to How will AI and ML help? inevitable the edge will facilitate wireless Enterprise network management is ubiquity of 5G extensions of present-day time- all about reducing CAPEX and OPEX technology’s sensitive network (TSN) applications. to survive in a competitive digital- scalable The potential for TSN applications driven marketplace. Options such bandwidth over 5G is one of the drivers in the as intent-based networking are a and lower pursuit of private networks and better solution for today’s complex, latencyM in leveraging MEC to move network slicing. software-defined networks. However, SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 37
Moreover, the integration of AI and cloud computing will allow agile development of solutions, ensuring the efficiency of processes and reduced downtime. Intelligent cloud computing can facilitate the enhanced exchange of information between DevOps teams, assisting them in their work The combination while building mobile sites. AI enables extensive data management, and cloud of AI and cloud has computing maximizes information security, making it possible to deal the potential to with massive amounts of data in a programmed manner. Also, since a cloud model operates on an on- accelerate processes demand basis for storage, it eliminates traditional infrastructure costs. With and procedures, this model, an organization can use cost savings to fund the development making organizations of AI for cost-efficient projects. strategically Race to greener networks The big issue facing the world today is competitive and the need to reduce harmful emissions in the atmosphere and minimize the impact of global warming, with the technologically well race to net-zero emission by 2050 gathering steam across the telecom structured industry. Recent findings suggest data traffic in digital networks and other ICT consumes about 7% of the world’s electricity and is projected to increase to 13% by 2030. Supporting these new challenges means collecting information in the form of real-time telemetry throughout the network.
With the help of data analytics and as these networks grow larger, the able to deliver the right or the same AI methods operators are creating vast programmability of devices and level of access to information and algorithms that will enable mobile flexibility in their configuration will lead systems for employees regardless networks to be more efficient in to unimaginable levels of complexity. It of their locations. The combination terms of saving energy and as a can be said without exaggeration that a of AI and cloud has the potential to result, decrease CO2 emissions. For network driven by artificial intelligence accelerate processes and procedures, instance, machine learning (ML), a part and machine learning (AI/ML), is the making organizations strategically of AI, can achieve energy efficiency only way for humans to navigate this competitive and technologically well by enabling greater automation by complexity. structured. picking up the patterns from historical data without being programmed. When in cloud Technologies such as the intelligent Suggesting configuration settings Applications are moving to the cloud. cloud are capable of autonomous that can be applied to base stations The network architecture needs sensing, scheduling, repair, and and other equipment will allow ML- constant updating to support the evolution. It frees operators from basic based techniques to reduce energy many different entrance points for repetitive tasks to automate cloud- consumption in network elements data into the campus and the diverse based data centers by leveraging without impacting the quality of paths that the data will travel. Many artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. experience (QoE) for customers. enterprises have not been able to By utilizing ‘intelligent cloud,’ computing maintain the network at a pace with the operators can manage resources Supporting industry 4.0 requirements rapid adoption of cloud applications. to maximize power efficiency by The advancements in new Especially with the trend towards a scheduling resource use with a neural technologies are not going to end hybrid workplace, networks should be network system. anytime soon. Organizations that have SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 38
embraced and deployed industry 4.0 billion by 2025, out of which 74% practices into their businesses have will be IoT devices. To process the survived in the competitive digitally- zettabytes of data generated by driven marketplace. By using AI and such devices, networks will need ML innovations, operators can provide to be more distributed, flexible, and enterprise-level services to support intelligent. Telcos and operators can industry 4.0 requirements. monetize from such an ecosystem by delivering end-to-end solutions Connected devices Experts predict the rapid acceleration to end-users in networking as well of enterprise migration to the network as new business applications. edge with 70% of enterprises running Indeed, the industry 4.0 technologies will touch 55.7 billion varying levels of data processing at facilitate industries to work smarter, the edge by 2023. Technologies such while allocating resources for cost- by 2025, out of which as the intelligent edge can enable effective and efficient processes, enterprise uses cases that require however, businesses must overlook 74% will be IoT devices aggregating, securing, and analyzing the potential challenges of increasing a great deal of data across operations cybersecurity risks across the and customers. network and its infrastructure. Companies need to formulate robust Recent market research findings security practices that will safeguard reveal that from 42 billion in 2020, the business from security threats connected devices will touch 55.7 and possible data breaches. 17-21 OCT 2021 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE
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CRA approves wholesale charges for telecom networks from 2021-2023
“The CRA was keen that the prices for wholesale services approved by the CRA are in line with international regulatory best practices to ensure the provision of advanced and reliable telecom services across Qatar and building a competitive and innovative Qatari telecom sector that attracts investment. For fixed termination, prices will remain stable for 2021, 2022, and 2023 while mobile termination prices will decrease by 11%, 12%, and 13% respectively in the same period,” said His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, president of CRA. The Communications Regulatory Wholesale charges are the price that Authority (CRA) issued an order to telecom service providers pay to each Under this order, the telecom service direct Ooredoo Qatar and Vodafone other to interconnect and access their providers started implementing the set Qatar to implement specific wholesale networks. These include termination wholesale charges from the 1st of June charges for 2021, 2022, and 2023; services, interconnection link services, 2021. This will remain in effect until the aiming to maintain a competitive, fair, transmission link services, and duct CRA issues another order amending the and developing telecom sector in Qatar. products. wholesale charges.
Nokia and Vocus launch 200G optical network in Australia 4,100 km respectively, and will help Vocus to optimize CapEx and reduce OpEx. The upgraded, higher capacity optical network allows Vocus to provide the latest generation of quality optical services, in connecting Darwin to Hypercloud Data Centres, regional locations and international submarine cables.
Nokia’s solution is based on a flexible spectrum hybrid architecture with Colorless, Directionless, Contentionless Flex-grid (CDC-F) architecture at the terminal sites at Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin, and a simpler Colorless-Flexgrid (C-F) solution at regional drop sites Nokia announced that Vocus, upgrade covers more than 7,100 km providing a total warranted capacity of Australia’s leading fibre and network of fibre. 10.8Tb (54x200G) between Adelaide- solutions provider, has deployed Darwin and Brisbane-Darwin. The Nokia’s solution to set up the 200G The deployment between Adelaide solution is powered by Nokia’s optical links covering more than 4,100 to Darwin and Brisbane to Darwin Photonic Service Engine (PSE) super km between Brisbane and Darwin. replaces the existing optical transport coherent digital signal processors. Nokia’s 1830 Photonic Service Switch network to provide 100G and This is a cost-optimized solution (PSS) is used to upgrade Vocus’ 10G services to Vocus Enterprise, designed to combine end-to-end 200G optical network between Adelaide, Government and Wholesale traffic with more economical nodes Brisbane and Darwin to deliver 200G customers. The deployment of 2 x in regional sites, allowing express with the capability to easily provide 200G based wavelength unregenerated traffic and regional traffic in selected 300G and 400G in the near future. optical transport networks covers 70 locations to be served by the same With this initiative, the Vocus capacity sites, over a distance of 3,000 and system. SEPTEMBER 2021 WHOLESALE AND CAPACITY NEWS 41
NTRA approves regulatory framework to establish data centers in Egypt
markets in the rapidly-growing scope of data centers.
Several meetings and sessions with local as well as global corporations working in this field were conducted by NTRA, to come up with the optimum regulatory policies. In fact, the regulatory framework was set and approved to act as facilitating tool for the business procedures of data centers in global markets and within The National Telecom Regulatory investments in this field, optimizing Egypt. The said framework is also set Authority of Egypt (NTRA) approved Egypt’s geographic location, and to provide the investment facilitation a regulatory framework to establish reinforcing its strategic position as necessary for this scope, in an data centers as well as provide cloud a regional and global pivot point for attempt to have more investments computing services in the country. data movement. in cloud computing and e-content services. This step comes in line with the Furthermore, this measure was taken State’s strategy to uphold digital by NTRA to amplify Egypt’s position E-transactions could be smoothly and transformation and foster e-services’ as a gate connecting Africa and the rapidly carried out via quick access to provision to citizens. In line with Middle East to Europe, making the content hosted in such centers across this are the objectives of increasing country one of the most promising the Arab Republic of Egypt.
New branches added to 2Africa subsea cable system carrier-neutral data centers or open- access cable landing stations. This will encourage and support a healthy internet ecosystem.
Aiming to be the largest subsea cable project in the world, 2Africa will deliver faster and more reliable internet service to each country where it lands. Expecting to go live in late 2023, the 2Africa consortium has made considerable progress in planning and preparing for the deployment of the cable.
In fact, most of the subsea route survey activity is now complete. ASN is ready The 2Africa consortium, comprised of landing point to southeast Nigeria. to deploy the first segment in 2022 as China Mobile International, Facebook, The new branches, together with it started manufacturing the cable and MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, the recently announced extension to building repeater units in its factories in Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC, the Canary Islands, will increase the Calais and Greenwich. announced the addition of four new number of 2Africa landings to 35 in 26 branches to the 2Africa subsea cable countries. One of 2Africa’s key segments, system. the Egypt terrestrial crossing that This results in improved connectivity interconnects landing sites on the Red Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) into and around Africa. Service and the Mediterranean Seas via two has been selected to deploy the new providers can utilize the available completely diverse terrestrial routes, branches in Seychelles, the Comoros capacity offered by 2Africa subsea has also been completed ahead of Islands, and Angola as well as a new cable on a fair and equitable basis at schedule.
SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 44
What are green networks anyway?
ICT industry entities such as GSMA and ITU have been relentlessly advocating for ‘greener networks’ in the hopes of achieving a significant reduction of the environmental impacts of the ICT sector. ICTs contribute to around 2 to 2.5 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; however, ICTs are also well positioned to assist other sectors of the economy in reducing carbon emissions. With a host of initiatives, they aim to limit global warming within a 1.5°Celcius target set by the ITU Recommendation ITU-T L.1470 compatible with the UNFCCC Paris Agreement. SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 45
obust discussions Pegs for green networks or communication it turns on and interactions There are four main important automatically. have been put techniques for establishing green 4. Renewable energy source: A in place by the networks: completely green network involves organizations the entire network using renewable to encourage 1. Adaptive link rate (ALR): A widely energy (wind and solar). However, operators, vendors, used approach in making network if few devices are using renewable Rresearch institutions, and other infrastructure and network energy, they are called partial green ecosystem players to participate in the protocols power-aware and green. networks. standardization efforts of equipment ALR technology reduces power 5. Power amplifier: This electronic used to reduce the environmental consumption by adapting link device increases the magnitude of footprint of digital goods and services. speed to traffic demand. If there is voltage or current of an input signal. They also encourage stakeholders to no communication in the network, It can convert a weak electrical share knowledge, develop and adopt devices go into sleep mode. signal to reproduce a similar common approaches towards an 2. Interface proxying: Outsourcing strong signal at the output device, environmentally friendly ICT ecosystem. network operations from CPU and minimizing energy requirement to to on/off devices on demand. When some extent. Networks using power As per the International Energy there is less communication in the amplifiers also fall under partial Agency (IEA) forecast, the growing networks, it turns on devices that green networks. use of residential ICTs and consumer consume low power. 6. Smart topology: electronics goods will triple electricity 3. Energy-aware infrastructure: Design • Femtocells or microcell is a small, consumption by 2030 if no action and management of networks, lower power cellular base station is taken to improve their efficiency. including clean slate network design designed for use at home or small However, it also concludes that whereby the entire network is made organizations. Also called Femto the adoption of the most efficient energy-aware and energy-efficient. access point, it connects to the service technologies would cut electricity 4. Energy-aware applications: providers’ network through broadband consumption by more than half, Energy-efficient software designs such as DSL or cable. Current design preventing the increase to 1 percent a (virtualization) in place of hardware supports 4 to 8 simultaneously active year through 2030. This level of energy components. mobile phones in a residential setting savings would save 260 gigawatts depending on versions and femtocell in additional power demand – more Some of the best practices hardware. than the current electrical generating Network engineers have explored both capacity of Japan. wired and wireless network to analyze • Cognitive Radio (CR): A form of the energy consumption pattern of wireless communication in which a By infusing green ICTs across the network devices and to reduce energy transceiver intelligently picks active industry, up to ten times more energy consumption using different strategies. and passive communication channels can be saved. Thus, making network and instantly switches into vacant infrastructure power-aware and energy 1. Re-engineering the network: Aims channels and changes its transmission efficient is being seen as an important at optimizing network elements or reception parameters to allow more step towards reducing the energy or designing with completely new concurrent wireless communication in footprint in the ICT sector. energy-efficient equipment or a given spectrum band in one location devices with a focus on energy- as a form of dynamic spectrum So what’s green networking? efficient hardware devices. management. Low power consumption or energy- 2. Dynamic adaptation: Modulates efficient communication networks, the capacities of packet processing Green networks focus on consuming especially concerning environmental engines and network interfaces less energy to ensure environmentally issues are commonly referred to as to meet actual requirements with responsible usage of communication green networks. Its primary objective intelligent modulation and routing. networks and related sources. Strong is to minimize energy consumption, Smart routers automatically operate government and industry efforts increase energy efficiency or energy according to network traffic. on energy efficiency, renewables optimization. Green networks’ 3. Sleeping/standby mode: Considers procurement, and RD&D are of massive beginnings go back to the models the case where the networking importance to limit growth in energy proposed by researchers in 2003-2004 equipment or parts of the demand and GHG emissions. whereby the researchers proposed equipment are switched to a sleep As the ICT sector and systems network devices and strategies state, using intelligent networks, become ever more complex, greater that enabled reduction of energy smart devices, or software. Smart transparency between the different consumption and energy efficiency – devices such as wireless card/ levels in how they communicate and the main difference between traditional LAN card turn off when there is no interact with each other is warranted to or non-green networks and green communication or traffic, however, design more energy-efficient operations networks. when it senses network traffic of the future. SEPTEMBER 2021 ENDORS NEWS 46
Huawei commits to building trustworthy open-source software chain
Huawei will work to align the supply with global developers and open source chain behind OpenChain ISO 5230, communities, the Chinese multinational the international standard for quality tech company hopes to build a “more open-source compliance. “Huawei secure and trustworthy open-source is delighted to join the OpenChain software chain together.“ Project. Huawei adheres open collaboration and innovation, has long “China is the center of innovation been committed to establishing a across many types of technology, compliance management system that including open source,” says Shane aligns with industry best practices, and Coughlan, OpenChain general manager. incorporating compliance management “Huawei’s leadership in this space has into end-to-end business activities helped build bridges across the world. and processes,” said Wang Yousheng, Their decision to join the governing director of open source & developer board of the OpenChain Project is Huawei, a global leader in technology dept, Huawei. further evidence of this and will be and open source, has joined the board pivotable in taking OpenChain ISO 5230 of the OpenChain Project alongside Wang pointed out that Huawei to the next level. This will benefit every 20 other global companies such as will be an active member in company using open-source, a shared Qualcomm, Google, Siemens, and OpenChain Project. Through mutual undertaking we approach with both Toyota. understanding, cooperation, and trust excitement and respect.”
Nokia Bell Labs launches 5G Secured Networks course networks has moved to the forefront Sergio Fasce, head of people services as an industry imperative, for which at Nokia, said, “With security breaches comprehensive end-to-end solutions dominating news headlines at an are needed. alarming rate, the Nokia Bell Labs 5G Secured Networks Certification Program Geert Van Wauwe, chief security officer brings a greater awareness to network at Nokia, said, “5G will empower new susceptibility and safeguards, along services and applications beyond our with the means to address them. We imagination. However, user acceptance are pleased to have partnered with our will be based on trust that information colleagues at Nokia Bell Labs to deliver has not been breached and services a training program addressing arguably cannot be compromised. Therefore, the the most timely and impactful issue Nokia Bell Labs 5G Secured Networks facing the communications industry course and certification are essential today.” for educating professionals to a high Nokia announced a new professional level of understanding on how to build This course is the fourth of the Nokia level 5G course and certification aimed and operate secure 5G networks.” Bell Labs 5G Professional Level at network security. The Nokia Bell Certification Program, and nearly 30,000 Labs 5G Secured Networks course is The 8-hour web-based course, which individuals across many industries have part of Nokia’s program to train and can be completed at the learner’s own registered for 5G certification courses certify industry professionals on 5G pace, covers the processes, tools, since its February 2020 launch. technology, from network access to technologies, and resources needed application management. to implement an effective program As a leader in cellular technology that proactively prevents and resolves R&D and standardization, Nokia is in The newly launched Nokia Bell threats to network security. Course a unique position to address network Labs 5G Secured Networks course participants will examine the role of security challenges in the 5G world. It addresses the vulnerabilities faced 5G security in network, software, and implemented more than 500 security by all industries, governments, and cloud environments, and they will apply projects worldwide over the past 15 individuals to secure 5G systems. an understanding of security threats, years and plays an active role in more Given that 5G is becoming a key protections, and potential responses than five standardization bodies that are element of emerging mission-critical through a series of real-world case shaping the latest in security standards Industry 4.0 solutions, securing 5G study exercises. and best practices. SEPTEMBER 2021 ENDORS NEWS 47
Huawei gets US approval to acquire automotive chips
“The modernization, digitization, and facing functions and near real-time cloudification of telecom networks controllers, valued at $2 billion in over the last few years have not only revenue. resulted in a change to architectures and strategies. In our view, the telecom This is followed by distributed cloud software market landscape itself has infrastructure management that now been transformed,” analysts said generated $689 million last year, in a blog. artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) with $558 million, service According to the report, the top three orchestration with $509 million, The global market for network vendors from Finland, China, and the US network data management with $430 automation software hits $4.36 billion accounted for about 38% of the market million, and component lifecycle in 2020, with Nokia and Huawei among in 2020. On the other hand, second-tier management at $176 million. the leading telecom vendors, according players captured an aggregated 25% to a new Appledore Research report. market share. This shows a relatively The analysts believe that automation high percentage of involvement from is the dominant business driver The Finnish vendor ended the year with other tech companies. behind new spending on software. a 17% share of the market with $758 Network automation is an operational million followed by Huawei with a 12% In the latest report, the network philosophy that CSPs must need to market share, recording $544 million automation software market has adapt to succeed and thrive. “CSPs in revenue. VMware had $379 million been broken down into six categories must change metrics, incentives, in revenue and a 9% market share, for analysis. Dominating the organizational structures, and root out indicating a structural transformation market with almost 46% is domain long-held assumptions and prejudices within the market. management, which includes network- that are no longer true.”
Qualcomm and ZTE achieve peak speed for 5G mmWave RF System, and ZTE mmWave AAU X65 that is important to help operators network infrastructure equipment. meet everyday data demands – in industrial, enterprise and consumer This marks the first connection in scenarios. China using 5G NR standalone Dual- Connectivity (NR-DC, or FR1+FR2 DC) Whether it is enabling collaboration with one 200 MHz carrier in the 26 with colleagues using cloud-based GHz (n258) mmWave band, along with applications, allowing for a smooth one 100 MHz carrier in the 3.5 GHz video meeting from a crowded train (n78) band, achieving a peak downlink station, supporting professional speed of over 2.43 Gbps using a single live TV video transmissions, device. In the tests, the companies also connecting machinery and sensors achieved a peak downlink speed of over in a manufacturing plant, or providing 5 Gbps using a single device employing scalable processing power and storage carrier aggregation with four 200MHz in the office – superior everyday carriers in the 26 GHz (n258) mmWave experiences are built on 5G mmWave. band and successfully tested two 200 MHz mmWave carriers on the uplink. In fact, analysis from GSMA Intelligence The use of standalone (SA) that uses in 2021 shows that 5G mmWave and Qualcomm Technologies and ZTE a 5G Core (5GC) network allows for sub-6 deployments are more cost- announced that, to support the capabilities such as network slicing and effective than sub-6 only in a variety testing needs of the IMT-2020 (5G) lower latency. of scenarios including dense urban promotion group for 200MHz carrier and enterprise settings. The global 5G bandwidth over 5G mmWave, the 5G mmWave is a key aspect of the mmWave ecosystem is now mature, companies successfully showcased 5G global standard. It allows mobile with more than 120 5G mmWave features required in anticipation of 5G operators to use vast spectrum commercial and pre-commercial mmWave rollouts in China. The tests resources in bands above 24 GHz to devices supporting the technology were completed using a smartphone deliver massive network capacity and including smartphones, PCs, hotspots, form-factor test device powered by the extreme multi-Gigabit performance modules and customer premise flagship Snapdragon® X65 Modem- – up to 10 Gbps with the Snapdragon equipment (CPE), according to GSA. SEPTEMBER 2021 ENDORS NEWS 48
Huawei’s Seeds for the Future program receives recognition in Bahrain
technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud the ICT talent pool, a key pillar for computing amongst universities in achieving the socio-economic Bahrain. development goals in Bahrain,” said Dr. Jassim. Dr. Jassim Haji, president of the International Group of Artificial “Upcoming graduates will be Intelligence, presented the fundamental to Bahrain’s future tech appreciation certificate to Eric Li, industry,” notes Jason Cao, CEO managing director of Huawei Bahrain, of Huawei Bahrain. “Encouraging in honor of the exceptional, long- knowledge exchange at this level is term commitment Huawei has made essential to opening new doors in the to bolstering local talent in line with sector, which in turn builds a stronger Bahrain’s ambitions to become a and more sustainable technology leading regional ICT hub. ecosystem in Bahrain and the wider region.” “Huawei has always been a trusted strategic partner for Bahrain public Huawei’s ‘Seeds for the Future’ program Huawei’s flagship corporate social and private sectors and its value is was initiated in 2008, and today it responsibility (CSR) program ‘Seeds acknowledged on both the business supports the development of local for the Future’ has been recognized in and social levels. Seeds for the ICT talent by enhancing international Bahrain by the International Group of Future program is yet another Huawei knowledge transfer amongst students, Artificial Intelligence, one of the world’s initiative in Bahrain, supporting promoting a greater understanding of fastest-growing AI communities, for Bahrain ICT ecosystem and driving and interest in the technology field, and the substantial contribution Huawei digital transformation through encouraging participation in a growing has made to the advancement of nurturing local talent and building digital economy.
Nokia ropes in online learning platforms to provide tech education for underrepresented communities alongside further studies or full-time work, making them accessible to anyone regardless of their position or profession. Scholarships are open to applicants based anywhere in the world, to both students and industry professionals who wish to further develop their technology skills. Scholarship recipients will also have access to support and networking provided by the BIT Foundation, including mentorship, tutoring, and post-completion career support As part of its efforts to lessen the digital computing and programming, artificial resources. Nokia will also work closely divide and promote inclusivity across intelligence, and data science will be with its African-American employee the tech industry, Nokia has offered covered from elementary to advanced resource group ABLE (Advancing over 300 scholarships for Nanodegree levels. Black Leadership and Excellence) to programs, which are fully online and further promote the initiative. can be completed alongside further Nokia will be working together studies or full-time work, with a focus with online learning and talent The successful candidates will be on students and career changers from transformation platform Udacity able to select courses on topics such underrepresented communities. and Blacks In Technology (BIT) as AI Programming with Python, Java Foundation. Udacity, whose Programming, Data Structures and Under the program, core tech Nanodegree programs are fully Algorithms, Intermediate Python, and competencies such as cloud online and designed to be completed Cloud DevOps Engineering. SEPTEMBER 2021 ENDORS NEWS 49
CommScope’s Q2 core net sales increased by 18% year-over-year
revenue growth,” said Chuck Treadway, in the second quarter of 2021 president and chief executive officer. compared to the same period last “Despite ongoing global supply year. According to the company’s chain challenges, our team remained statement, the negative impact of focused and continued to deliver for COVID-19 has eased during their our customers. We remain encouraged 1H 2021 financial performance, with by opportunities to capitalize on network strain driving increased industry tailwinds such as the demand demand for their Broadband segment for 5G, the recent launch of HELIAX® products. SkyBlox™ to meet the demand for network upgrades, and the help we Alex Pease, executive vice president provide operators to put reliable mobile and chief financial officer, said, “While networks in place.” we are pleased with our second- CommScope’s core net sales quarter performance and strong increased 17.8% year-over-year Overall net sales in Q2 2021 increased demand outlook, we will need to work primarily due to higher net sales in 3.9% year over year to $2.19 billion hard in the back half of this year to the Broadband Networks and Venue while the net loss of $153.8 million stabilize the challenges within our and Campus Networks segments, as decreased by 52.1% compared to the global supply chains. CommScope revealed in its latest results. previous period’s net loss of $321.1 continues to position itself to reinvest million. Non-GAAP adjusted net in our core strategic markets and “Our second-quarter results income also surged by 34.4% reaching technologies, capitalizing on growth demonstrate strong execution and $105.7 million, or $0.43 per share, opportunities in our Broadband, some early quick wins with our versus $76.9 million, or $0.32 per Outdoor Wireless, and Venue and CommScope NEXT initiative offsetting share, in the second quarter of 2020. Campus segments. As we move into a portion of our inflationary impacts the second half of the year, growth, with a longer-term focus on optimizing Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA also cost control, and portfolio optimization our portfolio and delivering strong increased by 10% to $307.7 million will continue to be our priorities.”
Cisco reports strong Q4 and FY 2021 earnings an increase of 15%. On a non-GAAP reported total revenue was $49.8 basis, net income was $3.6 billion, an billion, an increase of 1% from $49.3 increase of 5%, and EPS was $0.84, billion last year. On a GAAP basis, an increase of 5%. net income was $10.6 billion, a decrease of 6%, and EPS was $2.50, Adjusted total gross margin, product a decrease of 5%. On a non-GAAP gross margin, and service gross basis, net income was $13.6 billion, margin were 65.6%, 65.0%, and flat compared to fiscal 2020, and EPS 67.4%, respectively, as compared with was flat at $3.22. Cash Flow from 65.0%, 63.2%, and 69.8%, respectively, Operating Activities was $15.5 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. for fiscal 2021, flat compared with fiscal 2020. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $4.2 billion, up 8%, and were 32.1% Looking ahead, the company expects of revenue. Non-GAAP operating 61 cents to 66 cents a share in Q1 income was $4.4 billion, up 10%, profit, or 79 cents to 81 cents on Cisco reported fourth quarter and with non-GAAP operating margin at an adjusted basis. Analysts are fiscal year results for the period 33.5%. forecasting 67 cents and 81 cents, ended July 31, 2021. respectively. Cash Flow from operating activities The company reported Q4 revenue was $4.5 billion for the fourth quarter For fiscal 2022, Cisco is modeling of $13.1 billion, up 8% from $12.15 of fiscal 2021, an increase of 18% revenue growth of between 5% and billion a year ago. On a GAAP basis, compared with $3.8 billion for the 7%, and EPS of between $2.72 and net income was $3.0 billion, an fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. In $2.84, or between $3.38 and $3.45 on increase of 14%, and EPS was $0.71, Financial Year 2021, the company an adjusted basis. SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 50
SASE: Future of network security Modern network security requires a great deal of time, energy, and resources. With more enterprises going into the cloud, secure access service edge (SASE) has seen broad adoption among security and networking vendors alike.
o define, SASE is see continued focus, alongside several working, and cloud-based computing the convergence of other areas, including secure software- have accelerated SASE offerings. Hence, network and network defined wireless wide area network (SD- migration from the traditional perimeter security services WAN), application and endpoint security, and hardware-based paradigm to a into an integrated micro-segmentation, managed security SASE model is needed. cloud-native services (MSS), and server message architecture. SASE block (SMB) security. In a digitally-focused era, to ensure guaranteesT broad and holistic network protection anywhere and anytime, SASE security services to support the needs From its inception in 2019 until today, is opted by many as security standards of businesses and empower digital SASE is a practical and compelling become fitting in a software-defined transformation. model that can be partially or fully and cloud-delivered environment. implemented depending on the business This influences changes in security Looking ahead to the next 12 months, requirement and vendor capability. architecture and vendor selection as a a Help AG report predicts that SASE will Digitalization, the surge of remote whole. SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 51
with advanced threat defenses • SD-WAN: SD-WAN is a software- such as URL filtering, advanced based approach to building and machine learning (AML), anti-virus managing networks that connect (AV) scanning, sandboxing, data highly distributed offices. By means of loss prevention (DLP), and web SD-WAN, companies securely connect isolation. A gateway effectively their branch offices in corporate blocks malware and acts as a barrier networks seamlessly. No need to deal to prevent any confidential data from with multiprotocol label switching being stolen such as social security (MPLS) connections or other exclusive numbers, credit card numbers, and hardware. Though commonly medical information. Having said associated together, SD-WAN and that, the web gateway strengthens SASE have an actual difference. security against external sites, SASE combines different security software, or data that could harm components that affect the overall people and programs within the network decision-making process. On organization. the other hand, SD-WAN focuses on smart routing by using a centralized • CASB: The transition to a cloud and control function to securely direct remote-working world pressured traffic across the WAN. traditional perimeter-based SWG to innovate. Literally from any location • FwaaS: Firewall as a service (aka on various devices, users can now cloud-based firewalls) forms a directly access IT infrastructure virtual barrier around cloud assets. and connected resources virtually. Taking the functionality of a next- Hence, cloud access security brokers generation firewall (NGFW), FWaaS are designed to provide visibility provides a level of flexibility and and control over cloud applications. scalability that standard firewalls Authentication, credential mapping, struggle to match. Through a SASE device profiling, encryption, approach, FWaaS leverages layer 7 tokenization, logging, and alerting and NGFW firewalls for maximum are among the multiple security security. Among its benefits is being policies that CASBs execute. For a proxy-based architecture that malware detection and prevention, enables granular firewall policies. Core SASE elements CASBs usually run in multi-mode as Also, a cloud-based intrusion The fourth industrial revolution which they are set up as a proxy or within prevention system (IPS) delivers threat involves large-scale automation and API-based systems. protection and coverage, regardless the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) is of location or connection type. As just half a decade old, yet everything’s • ZTNA: To outsmart threats and the first line of defense, a cloud- changing fast. This means innovation- liberate users, SASE is essentially based firewall protects users from wise, security-wise, and technology- built upon principles of zero trust; reaching malicious domains and uses wise. To stay competitive, relevant, and fundamentally changing the way advanced analytics to correlate events secure, businesses have to change enterprises are protected. Zero-trust and provide insight into current and their underlying framework. network access removes excessive future threats and vulnerabilities. implicit trust as access is granted on SASE stitches together secure web a “need-to-know,” least-privileged Benefits and use cases gateway (SWG), cloud access security basis. By creating software-defined Companies are currently carrying broker (CASB), zero-trust network perimeters and enforcing adaptive out multi-year digital transformation access (ZTNA), SD-WAN, and cloud- and context-aware policies, ZTNA strategies to survive in an era of digital based firewalls into a single cloud- connections grant access only after disruption. As the nature of businesses based service. This comprehensive devices and users are verified. Unlike changed, security leaders are set to face service enables identity-based access the traditional approach of simply a new set of challenges arising from a anywhere in the network based employing virtual private networks decentralized workforce. As expected, on real-time context, security, and (VPNs) to secure access between as IT infrastructures evolve, so must compliance policies. applications and users, ZTNA security practices. Thus, embracing also increases flexibility, agility, SASE enables companies to acquire the • SWG: Secure web gateways are and scalability without exposing security, agility, and performance they mostly used to protect enterprises internal applications directly to the need. against malware and malicious internet. This is done through micro- websites. SWG adoption targets web segmentation and full application Some use cases of SASE are quite threats via an inline proxy solution cloaking. evident in work-from-home scenarios SEPTEMBER 2021 ICT FEATURE 52
and the rise of IoT devices. As Adoption gaps and recommendations vendors. Furthermore, SASE adoption employees nowadays tend to access Without a doubt, SASE will be the will depend on the customer’s starting corporate resources from home security trend of the decade. Being point and its end goals. or anywhere outside the office the latest cybersecurity toolkit for premises, SASE can help control enterprises, SASE moves away from For example, the tactics for a startup who can access which by adapting data center-oriented security. Instead, that needs a bottom-up security permissions based on context. This it unifies the network and security approach will differ from a multinational works as well in securing the edge, tools into a single service delivered company that already has an existing data centers, and other cloud services via the cloud. All in all, it addresses framework. With the former, the choices that also power organizational the need for consolidation, cloud, and available for a SASE environment assets. convergence. extend to multiple operating systems. Thus, digital workspaces As a result, SASE brings forth The shift from on-premises data can interconnect and stay protected improved cloud security posture center-oriented security to cloud- simultaneously. For the latter, with by providing an end-to-end (E2E) native security may be viewed as single-interface management for SASE encryption mechanism with a threat. Similarly, vendors with elements, it’s possible for IT to move integrated web application and API traditional product offerings may find from on-premises to hybrid/multi- protection (WAAP) services. Using the it difficult to modify their offerings cloud environments without sacrificing ZTNA model, strict access controls and keep up with the demand. Some workspace availability, application can be applied. Moreover, a boost SASE vendors are SD-WAN solution performance, or security. in network performance is achieved providers while others are network through the SD-WAN and SASE security companies which may cause Some recommendations and outlook integrated security service approach. them to overshadow their capabilities of Gartner for a SASE roadmap include in non-traditional areas. replacing legacy VPN by deploying Leaving the security protocols ZTNA; consolidating market vendors; working under an automated state, It is very important to remember that, creating a dedicated team of security the number of branch devices, agents, in this context, any tools should fit into and networking experts; having and vendors will also be drastically a company’s cybersecurity strategy. consistent policy enforcement and reduced. This lowers not only the cost The belief that ‘one size fits all’ does coverage; combining techniques for but also removes network complexity not apply here. Different enterprises sensitive-data visibility and control; and by abstracting away upgrades, have different security fabrics that committing to contractual SLAs for high patches, and network maintenance. may correspond with single or multiple availability and low latency.
SEPTEMBER 2021 LOBAL NEWS 54
Singapore and Huawei set to build an innovation center US expand in Tunisia Tech giant Huawei will build jobs and skills training. cybersecurity a research, development, and The Chinese multinational telecom innovation center in Tunisia, provider is also willing to expand cooperation announced President of Huawei partnerships with universities and North Africa Terry He during a educational institutions and equip Singapore and the United States meeting with President Kais Saied. them with computer labs, Terry have signed a Memorandum of According to Terry, Tunisia meets all added. Understanding (MOU) to expand the criteria to become a technology cooperation on cybersecurity. hub in Africa. For his part, the President of the The MOU was signed by David Republic welcomed the opportunities Koh, Chief Executive of the Cyber Received by President Kais at for partnership between Tunisia and Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) Carthage Palace, Terry affirmed the China, stressing his commitment and Jen Easterly, Director of the company’s commitment to continue to strengthening this partnership, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure supporting Tunisia, particularly in the particularly in the sectors of Security Agency (CISA). implementation of the medical city education, teaching, transport, and in Kairouan as well as the creation of health. Besides strengthening information sharing, fostering cybersecurity exchanges between Singapore and the U.S., and cooperation through Verizon expands SDN same day cloud joint exercises, the MOU will expand into new areas of cooperation interconnection such as critical technologies, and research and development. Verizon Business is expanding its Verizon Business. “Equinix is a trusted Software-Defined Interconnect (SDI) strategic partner who helps enable “Singapore and the United States solution, enabling global enterprise our Network-as-a-Service approach share deep mutual interests and Public Sector customers to to managed services, and this SDI in enhancing cybersecurity connect their MPLS and Ethernet expansion provides our customers cooperation, particularly as private networking services to with the agility they need to meet their cybersecurity has become a key hundreds of cloud, infrastructure and needs as they migrate to the cloud.” enabler for both countries to service providers with automated, leverage the benefits of digitalisation same-day connectivity. Together Since the launch of SDI in 2019, to grow our economies and improve with Equinix the two companies Verizon and Equinix have worked the lives of our people,” said Mr Koh. recognized shifting market demands to enhance Verizon’s capabilities “This expanded MOU is a testament and worked to expand this solution to handle the drastic shift in of our shared vision to work together to meet changing global needs. Now, digital transformation journeys for towards a stable, secure, resilient customers can get quick activation of enterprise and Public Sector due to and interoperable cyberspace. network services, lower access costs the pandemic. The service initially We look forward to continuing our and increased networking agility. The included same day provisioning of work with the US to strengthen SDI solution is part of the Verizon Private IP to Equinix’s colocation cybersecurity cooperation between Business Network-as-a-Service environments and will now support our countries.” (NaaS) strategy. Ethernet E-Line and E-LAN wide area networks. Verizon and Equinix “Cyber threats don’t adhere to “Organizations are seeking more agile have invested heavily in agile borders, which is why international ways of working from anywhere on services and expansion into new collaboration is a key part of the any device. To take advantage of new markets. This enables customers Biden-Harris administration’s solutions built on 5G, from real-time to leverage Verizon’s high-speed approach to cybersecurity,” said data analytics and AI, to enhanced network (up to 10 Gbps), coupled Ms Easterly. “The MOU allows us to security and AR/VR, they need a with Equinix Fabric, to expand and strengthen our existing partnership flexible, programmable, scalable enhance connectivity to Verizon’s with Singapore so that we can and reliable platform that delivers MPLS and Ethernet customers more effectively work together network services in a much more globally. The scalable bandwidth to collectively defend against the resilient and cloud-centric way than and provisioning automation are a threats of today and secure against traditional network infrastructures,” foundational component of Verizon’s the risks of tomorrow.” said Massimo Peselli, Senior Vice NaaS capabilities being rolled out at President of Global Enterprise, Equinix. SEPTEMBER 2021 LOBAL NEWS 55
GSMA calls for 2 GHz midband spectrum SES’s O3b in Kenya mPOWER MEO Global System for Mobile industry regulator would be able to Communications Association (GSMA) lower the cost of 5G for the consumer system to provide has called on Kenya’s mobile industry and minimize the impact on the regulator to boost the country’s environment additional spectrum provision by at least two gigahertz (GHz) to maximize 5G “Without the additional spectrum, it connectivity as potential and minimize environmental will be impossible to realize the full impact. potential of 5G in some cases. In more critical others, it will lead to higher carbon In a new publication, the GSMA emissions and consumer prices,” workloads move recommends that the country’s mobile stated GSMA. industry will need an average of 2 to cloud GHz of midband spectrum to meet This will help stakeholders on the path the International Telecommunications to realizing the maximum benefits SES announced Microsoft as the Union (ITU) data speed requirements by 2030. “The study shows that first cloud provider customer of 100 Mbps download speeds and 50 policymakers should license spectrum for its next-generation medium Mbps upload speeds. to mobile operators in harmonized earth orbit (MEO) system – O3b bands, such as 3.5 GHz, 4.8 GHz and, mPOWER. Microsoft plans GSMA also said that by achieving 6GHz to meet the ITU’s requirements to leverage the MEO high- the required ITU targets, the mobile by 2030,” added GSMA. performance connectivity services to showcase its Azure Orbital solutions that integrate satellite connectivity with Azure services. Microsoft will use SES’s current 5G is now being deployed in 44% of private MEO to provide connectivity now before migrating to O3b mPOWER mobile networks next year. SES’s current O3b and upcoming 45 countries/territories have been subsector, account for over a quarter O3b mPOWER systems operate identified with private network (25.3%) of the abovementioned sector. in the medium earth orbit, around deployments based on LTE/5G or Coming in second is the mining 8,000 km above earth’s surface. where 5G-suitable private network industry with ports also actively When fully operational in 2022, spectrum licenses have been trialing/deploying local area private O3b mPOWER will deliver an assigned. The new ‘Private Mobile mobile networks. unprecedented increase of Networks’ market status report of GSA flexibility and throughput speed reveals that while LTE still accounts “The demand for private mobile and capacity to any Azure Network for the majority of private mobile networks based on LTE, and locations on earth. networks deployment, the market increasingly 5G, technologies are share of 5G is growing. being driven by the spiraling data, Microsoft’s plans to deploy O3b security, digitization and enterprise mPOWER at Azure Network According to GSA’s data, LTE is being mobility requirements of modern locations is another step in the used in 64% of the cataloged private business and government entities,” close collaboration between the mobile networks down from 81% said Joe Barrett, GSA president. two companies. SES is co-locating in October 2020. In contrast, 5G is “Organisations of all types are four of its O3b mPOWER gateways now being deployed (or planned for combining connected systems with at or near Azure data centres; is deployment) in 44% of private mobile big data and analytics to transform the founding medium Earth Orbit networks — 8% of these are deployed operations, increase automation and (MEO) satellite connectivity partner with LTE and 5G combined. efficiency or deliver new services for Microsoft Azure Orbital; is an to their users. Wireless networking Azure ExpressRoute for satellite For local area private mobile networks, with LTE or 5G enables these partner; and is the first satellite manufacturing leads as an early transformations to take place even in operator to implement Open adopter with 79 identified companies the most dynamic, remote or highly Network Automation Platform holding suitable licenses or involved secure environments while offering (ONAP) using NFV technology on in known pilots or deployments of the scale benefits of a technology that Azure. LANs. Automotive companies, as a has already been deployed worldwide.” SEPTEMBER 2021 E ENTS CALENDAR 56
Telecom Review virtual panel, powered by SES Telecom Review is hosting a virtual panel powered by SES, 13 which will give C-level speakers the opportunity to speak about the topic: revolutionizing connectivity through innovation.
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Digitizing the capacity industry
The wholesale industry is a key to the telecommunications cycle. Telecom Review will highlight the importance of wholesale services in its 5 upcoming virtual panel. OCTOBER Place: virtual
GITEX
GITEX features a grand showcase of technology from big tech companies to government entities to next 17 generation startups. The latest trends and discoveries - in 5G, AI & analytics, future mobility, digital economies, cybersecurity, fintech, cloud & edge and more. 21 OCTOBER Place: Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai, UAE
Cabsat
Cabsat, the MENA region’s most competitive event for the satellite, broadcast and filmed content industry, will showcase 26 ground breaking innovation and powerful solutions for - professionals looking to create, manage, deliver and monetize content on any platform. 28 OCTOBER
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Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit 2021 The 15th edition of the leading ICT gathering will be held 8 in a hybrid mode where the latest industry trends will be tackled. DECEMBER Place: InterContinental Dubai Festival City and virtual
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