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Volume 10, August, 2019 A SAMENA Telecommunications Council Publication www.samenacouncil.org S AMENA TRENDS FOR SAMENA TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL'S MEMBERS BUILDING DIGITAL ECONOMIES Tech Mahindra: The Rise of the DX-Organization ... 59 Loon: Overcoming the Infrastructure Challenge in Broadband ... 74 Featured Eng. Nezar Banbeela Chief Executive Officer VIVA Bahrain THIS MONTH MATERIALIZING THE DIGITAL AGENDA 7441_Et_Business Mobile App_SAMENA Magazine_A4.indd 1 5/21/19 1:36 PM VOLUME 10, AUGUST, 2019 Contributing Editors Knowledge Contributions Subscriptions Izhar Ahmad Alfa [email protected] SAMENA Javaid Akhtar Malik Huawei Loon Advertising TRENDS Syniverse [email protected] Tech Mahindra Editor-in-Chief SAMENA TRENDS Bocar A. BA Publisher [email protected] SAMENA Telecommunications Tel: +971.4.364.2700 Council CONTENTS 05 EDITORIAL FEATURED 10 REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES Members News Regional News 62 SATELLITE UPDATES Satellite News 77 WHOLESALE UPDATES Wholesale News 83 TECHNOLOGY UPDATES The SAMENA TRENDS newsletter is wholly Technology News 06 Eng. Nezar Banabeela owned and operated by The SAMENA Chief Executive Officer Telecommunications Council (SAMENA 92 REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES VIVA Bahrain Council). Information in the newsletter is not Regulatory News intended as professional services advice, and SAMENA Council disclaims any liability for A Snapshot of Regulatory use of specific information or results thereof. Activities in the SAMENA Region Articles and information contained in this publication are the copyright of SAMENA Regulatory Activities Telecommunications Council, (unless otherwise noted, described or stated) and Beyond the SAMENA Region cannot be reproduced, copied or printed in any form without the express written ARTICLES permission of the publisher. 46 Building Key Pillars of Digital The SAMENA Council does not necessarily Agenda in a Level-playing Field endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with the content, comments, 59 The Rise of the DX-Organization opinions or statements made in The SAMENA TRENDS by any entity or entities. Information, 74 Loon: Overcoming the Infrastructure products and services offered, sold or placed in the newsletter by other than The SAMENA Challenge in Broadband Connectivity Council belong to the respective entity or entities and are not representative of The 81 Secure Global Connectivity Is Imperative SAMENA Council. The SAMENA Council for Age of IoT hereby expressly disclaims any and all warranties, expressed and implied, including 91 5G Reimagining the Next Level Smart City but not limited to any warranties of accuracy, reliability, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose by any entity or entities offering information, products and services in this newsletter. The user agrees that The SAMENA Council is not responsible, and shall have no liability to such user, with respect to any information, product or service offered by any entity or entities in this newsletter. The SAMENA Council’s only liability in the event of errors shall be the correction or removal of the erroneous information after verification. CONTENTS© 2019 - All rights reserved. SAMENA TRENDS is a trademark of SAMENA Telecommunications Council. TIME TO ACT SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2018 zain.com A Wonderful World Zain sustainability 2018 A4 AW.indd 1 6/24/19 4:36 PM EDITORIAL SAMENA TRENDS Materializing the Digital Agenda The world - all of us - need to come together innovation-led sustainability across economic to build a better, sustainable future that sectors, which are ready to benefit from benefits everyone, including the 49% still not advanced communications technologies, and connected. A specialized focus on promoting contributions in which can be readily made and physically enabling digitization could help by the large human resource that exists in the create such a future. region. In the age intelligent connectivity and autonomous learning, artificial intelligence is a Taking inspiration from the Digital Agenda game-changer for all economic sectors. Given for Europe (DAE), which is just one of seven our region’s focus on 5G, and to define revenue- flagship initiatives launched under the Europe rich use-cases for 5G, it is important that we 2020 ten-year strategy proposed by the look at some immediately implementation use European Commission nearly a decade ago cases for AI as well. It will require intra and for advancing the economy of the European inter-sector collaboration and coordination, Bocar A. BA Union, we can enable the SA-ME-NA region and expertise to translate theory into reality. Chief Executive Officer & to achieve a smart, sustainable, inclusive, Board Member and digitally-driven economy, founded on Over a a decade ago, Administrations adopted SAMENA Telecommunications coordination and collaboration in accelerating a first set of principles to move forward in the Council digitization. As with DAE, the ultimate aim digital, Internet-driven world. This has made of any digital agenda should be to harness it possible to identify emerging topics and modern technologies, including the latest catalyzing co-operation among the relevant wireless broadband and allied innovations, to stakeholders. Now in 2019, entering 2020, allow the region to achieve socio-economic we are in need for rethinking on many fronts growth through the creation of jobs, raising and take into account a myriad of new and standards of living, and improving both lives emerging challenges, including those linked and business environments. directly to use-cases of 5G. New ecosystems and new participants have emerged, and a new The impact of digitization, having been voiced genre of complexities and sustainability issues by SAMENA Council for several years now, have surfaced - not to mention changing (or spans a multitude issues, benefits, challenges, some may say, receding) world economic and growth prospects. At the SA-ME-NA dynamics. regional level, digitization has been on the rise as is evident from a diverse series of national Implementing a well-defined digital agenda ICT visions and tangible actions by policy- requires strengthening cooperation and better makers and regulatory authorities of the region. coordination on digital governance systems. Such national ICT visions have directly also Fulfillment of digital agenda also requires that created a path forward for the adoption and underlying obvious, and not so obvious, gaps expansion of the 5G ecosystem. At the global are also pinpointed and addressed so that level, however, we many need to consider better trust and stability prevails throughout; from ways to define priorities, implement strategies, identification of processes and mechanisms and to ensure effective cooperation between to implementation strategies, which should the relevant stakeholders. This is where clarity be based the best-practice principles of in the digital agenda comes into play. consensus-seeking, inclusiveness, co- operation, encouraging innovation where it There is an ever growing need to introduce truly matters, and aligning priorities. more intelligence, efficiency, creativity, and 5 AUGUST 2019 FEATURED SAMENA TRENDS VIVA Bahrain Speaks to SAMENA Council Since its launch in 2009 VIVA has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation and is focused on bringing the latest developments in technology into the Kingdom of Bahrain. We have taken this commitment to the next level over the past few years by developing and enacting a strategy to transform ourselves into an integrated digital service provider Q. What factors strongly demonstrate VIVA Bahrain’s transformation from a mobile operator to an integrated digital service provider? A. Since its launch in 2009 VIVA has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation and is focused on bringing the latest developments in technology into the Kingdom of Bahrain. We have taken this commitment to the next level over the past few years by developing and enacting a strategy to transform ourselves into an integrated digital service provider. As part of this transformation journey we have successfully completed multiple initiatives which have played a pivotal role in not only in VIVA Bahrain transformation but also in the transformation of the Bahrain market towards being more digitally oriented We launched VIVA Cash – a fully integrated mobile wallet and the only wallet in the country accessible to the unbanked population. Today VIVA Cash is the most popular mobile wallet in Bahrain with the largest Eng. Nezar Banabeela customer base and the largest merchant network. Chief Executive Officer VIVA also launched and successfully pushed our VIVA Bahrain Connected Life portfolio offering smart home devices, connected car devices and smart wearables. On the other hand, we have developed a comprehensive suite of ICT products targeting the B2B segment. Today VIVA offers end-to-end home entertainment solutions including high-speed “Home Broadband”, TV / VoD content and devices such as smart speakers, TVs, gaming consoles, etc. 6 AUGUST 2019 FEATURED SAMENA TRENDS All the above initiatives and launches experience across channels including the launch of Bahrain the FinTech Bay, the demonstrate VIVA’s commitment and highly advanced self-service machines regulatory sandbox, which allows firms to efforts towards evolving into a digital allowing services such as payment, experiment with new FinTech products and service provider. recharge, SIM-replacement, plan services in a controlled manner amongst change,