Volume 09, August, 2018 A SAMENA Telecommunications Council Newsletter www.samenacouncil.org SAMENA TRENDS EXCLUSIVELY FOR SAMENA TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL'S MEMBERS BUILDING DIGITAL ECONOMIES Huawei: Academic Freedom Drives Progress in Tech 39 Cisco: Four-pronged Mantra for Transforming Service Providers 48 Interview Said Al-Mandhari CEO Oman Broadband THIS MONTH SELF-ORGANIZING NETWORKS Durban 10-13 September BETTER SOONER Accelerating ICT innovation to improve lives faster. The global event for governments, corporates and tech SMEs. 10-13 September 2018, Durban, South Africa ITU Telecom World 2018 is the global platform to accelerate ICT innovations for social and economic development. It’s where policy makers and regulators meet industry experts, investors, SMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators to exhibit solutions, share knowledge and speed change. Our aim is to help ideas go further, faster to make the world better, sooner. Visit telecomworld.itu.int to find out more. Enjoy 10% discount with SAMENA Council code: C-00005168 #ituworld telecomworld.itu.int VOLUME 09, AUGUST, 2018 Contributing Editors Contributions Publisher Izhar Ahmad Cisco SAMENA Telecommunications Council SAMENA Javaid Akhtar Malik Huawei Oman Broadband Subscriptions TRENDS [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Advertising Bocar A. BA [email protected] SAMENA TRENDS [email protected] Tel: +971.4.364.2700 CONTENTS INTERVIEW 05 EDITORIAL 10 REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES Members News Regional News 41 SATELLITE UPDATES Satellite News 46 WHOLESALE UPDATES Wholesale News 50 TECHNOLOGY UPDATES The SAMENA TRENDS newsletter is wholly Technology News owned and operated by The SAMENA 07 Said Al-Mandhari Telecommunications Council (SAMENA 55 CEO Council). Information in the newsletter is not REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES Regulatory News Oman Broadband intended as professional services advice, and SAMENA Council disclaims any liability for A Snapshot of Regulatory use of specific information or results thereof. 09 SAMENA Council Articles and information contained in this Activities in the SAMENA Region Activity publication are the copyright of SAMENA Regulatory Activities Telecommunications Council, (unless SAMENA Council and TRA- otherwise noted, described or stated) and Beyond the SAMENA Region Bahrain Define a Collaboration cannot be reproduced, copied or printed Framework to Tackle Pressing in any form without the express written permission of the publisher. Telecom Industry Issues ARTICLES The SAMENA Council does not necessari- ly endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with the content, comments, opinions or statements made in The SAME- NA TRENDS by any entity or entities. Infor- mation, products and services offered, sold or placed in the newsletter by other than The SAMENA Council belong to the respective en- tity or entities and are not representative of The SAMENA Council. The SAMENA Council hereby expressly disclaims any and all war- ranties, expressed and implied, including 39 Academic Freedom Drives 48 Four-pronged mantra for but not limited to any warranties of accura- Progress in Tech transforming service providers cy, 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© 2018 - All rights reserved. SAMENA TRENDS is a trademark of SAMENA Telecommunications Council. It's more than just a wallet Send, receive and pay quickly anytime, anywhere with the bwallet app Download now *Terms and Conditions apply. bwallet accepted in: EDITORIAL SAMENA TRENDS Self-Organizing Networks As Operators prepare to meet even more requirements, considering autonomous data-intensive needs of their customers, management of networks would be integral today’s networks require better OAM to how advanced networks will operate, adapt, capabilities, including self-planning, and deliver performance. Since Operators configuration, operational management, and now need to be able to manage their highly- most importantly, optimization, to be able to invested and ever-increasingly complex handle greater influxes and accumulation of networks efficiently with minimal costs, it is data - which itself requires smart and robust important that techniques and technologies, analytics capability to be of optimum use to such as SON, are adopted to manage networks Operators and to end-users. with minimal effort, and to pave the path for realizing success in the IoT and cloud-driven Focusing on the need for reducing cost of world. implementation and improving network Bocar A. BA performance in both 4G and, in the near Operators majorly agree that SON will be Chief Executive Officer & Board future, 5G networks, various features in self- essential to transformation toward 5G and the Member organizing networks (SON) exist and have cloud. Thus among the biggest expectations SAMENA Telecommunications been defined as standards and promoted in of SON would be to optimize the customer Council the 3G Partnership Project as well as by Next experience for each user on the network, Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN). Real-life regardless of whether that user is human or challenges, however, exist in actually deploying thing. As the automation engine for tomorrow’s SON, considering it is difficult to implement networks, user-centric SON will have more and identify best possible interactions among relevance and direct importance for the end- simultaneously operating and even conflicting user in terms of experiencing superior quality SON functions within a given network. Without of digital experience and network performance, overcoming such difficulties, robustness, while helping Operators drive maximum value stability, and required network operations out of digital. cannot be achieved, and, so far, explains the reason why the SON ecosystem is currently Making user complaints obsolete or a rarity small. would prove to be a great application of self- organizing networks. Operators’ collective Where SON really comes into play is the role consensus as to how this automation should it will play in the automated operations of be achieved within our region would be advanced networks of tomorrow. Over the essential to the growth of the SON ecosystem last few years, it has been aptly understood and to the growth and organization of the that SON will have tremendous importance in Internet of Things. being able to fulfill 5G network management 5 AUGUST 2018 UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL Oman Broadband Company is unlocking the potential for Oman to become an increasingly connected nation, supporting the growth of the online economy, allowing new ways of doing business & boosting the rapidly growing SME sectors Oman Broadband is foucused upon the deployment of a broadband infrastructure, providing equal & open access to telecommunication service providers on a wholesale basis, enabling end users to efficiently leverage high speed fiber connectivity omanbroadband | www.omanbroadband.om INTERVIEW SAMENA TRENDS Q. What are the key areas of the Oman National Broadband Strategy in which Oman Broadband has achieved, maximally? A. Oman’s National Broadband Strategy has three main pillars, namely; the regulatory framework, demand stimulation and infrastructure enhancement. The infrastructure pillar is handled by Oman Broadband. Within few years of operation, Oman Broadband’s optical fiber network introduced a significant improvement in the country’s broadband infrastructure. Gaining access to other government owned fiber has opened opportunities for covering vast areas of the country by long hauls in addition to our own networks coverage. Within a few years of operation, Oman Broadband’s optical fiber network introduced a significant improvement in the country’s broadband infrastructure. Both governmental and commercial entities are increasingly utilizing this expanding infrastructure to fulfil their obligations towards the National Broadband Strategy. Q. What are your major contributions to the Omani ICT market? A. We have introduced the first open access FFTH network in Oman. This created competitive environment and offered affordable access to ultra-high speed broadband, that aside serving the customers today will be ready to meet future demand. It’s worthwhile to mention that since Oman Broadband has started its operations packages with better value for customers (higher access speeds) have been introduced to the market. Further to that, with open access FTTH Said Al-Mandhari network service providers are benefiting as well, CEO primarily due to a fact that lower investment is required at their end. Oman Broadband As already mentioned, we were also successful in securing long hauls to different areas and new locations in Oman, offering the service to governmental entities as well as all service providers. This product came out of the cooperation between Oman Broadband and various state-owned entities owning the underutilized fibre asset. We are very proud of this achievement which is good example of successful cooperation between various state entities to the benefit of the whole nation. 7 AUGUST 2018 INTERVIEW SAMENA TRENDS Furthermore, aside from