Volume 11, June-July, 2020 A SAMENA Telecommunications Council Publication www.samenacouncil.org S AMENA TRENDS FOR SAMENA TELECOMMUNICATIONS COUNCIL'S MEMBERS BUILDING DIGITAL ECONOMIES THIS MONTH 5G: READY FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACROSS INDUSTRIES VOLUME 11, JUNE-JULY, 2020 Contributing Editors Knowledge Contributions Subscriptions Izhar Ahmad China Mobile International [email protected] SAMENA Javaid Akhtar Malik Etisalat Huawei Advertising TRENDS InPhoTech, Poland [email protected] Intigral Editor-in-Chief stc Kuwait SAMENA TRENDS Bocar A. BA Tech Mahindra [email protected] Tel: +971.4.364.2700 Publisher SAMENA Telecommunications Council FEATURED CONTENTS 06 04 EDITORIAL 22 REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES Members News Regional News stc Speaks to SAMENA 88 SATELLITE UPDATES Satellite News Council SAMENA COUNCIL ACTIVITY 102 WHOLESALE UPDATES Wholesale News 108 TECHNOLOGY UPDATES The SAMENA TRENDS eMagazine is wholly Technology News owned and operated by The SAMENA Telecommunications Council (SAMENA 116 REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES Council). Information in the eMagazine is Regulatory News not intended as professional services advice, and SAMENA Council disclaims any liability A Snapshot of Regulatory for use of specific information or results Activities in the SAMENA Region 09 SAMENA Council Leaders' thereof. Articles and information contained Summit 2020 Unveiled in this publication are the copyright of Regulatory Activities Cross-Industry 5G SAMENA Telecommunications Council, Beyond the SAMENA Region (unless otherwise noted, described or stated) Readiness and Identified and cannot be reproduced, copied or printed ARTICLES Transformative Priorities in any form without the express written for the Decision-Makers 63 permission of the publisher. Over Four Decades of Evolution across the Public and Private in the Telecom Sector The SAMENA Council does not necessarily Sectors endorse, support, sanction, encourage, 85 Cross-Industry Synergies in the 17 Al-Nasser Urges for 5G verify or agree with the content, comments, Enablement of 5G opinions or statements made in The SAMENA Adoption across Industries... TRENDS by any entity or entities. Information, 98 China Mobile International: Enabling 18 Experts Say Expanding 5G products and services offered, sold or placed Connection of All Sorts of “Things” at in the eMagazine by other than The SAMENA Will Boost Regional Economies Council belong to the respective entity or an Unprecedented Scale During COVID-19 Recovery entities and are not representative of The 106 5G+X: Revamped Business Model SAMENA Council. 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The 143 Making 5G Successful 4 Enterprises SAMENA Council’s only liability in the event of errors shall be the correction or removal of the erroneous information after verification. CONTENTS© 2020 - All rights reserved. SAMENA TRENDS is a trademark of SAMENA Telecommunications Council. EDITORIAL SAMENA TRENDS 5G: Ready for Digital Transformation across Industries While immediate action is needed to the crisis, and for bringing various industries beneficially exploit the power of existing closer to the Telecom Industry in order to digital technologies in order to put recovery create new cross-industry synergies for back on track, governments and regulatory catalyzing a true digital renaissance in both authorities in the region, with the support and socio-economic activity and in industrial proactive engagement of the private sector productivity. Already, there is consensus and and the digital space players, should also recognition by governments and the private act upon the need to create synergies across sector alike that connectivity—at end-user, various industries—that is, vertical markets machine to machine, and industrial levels— for the Telecom Industry. In July, SAMENA lies at the core of these aspirations. Council aimed to reiterate precisely this, and thanks to the level of industry participation of At the core of provision of connectivity lies industry stakeholders and decision-makers the central role of Telecom Operators, and witnessed during the Leaders' Summit 2020, this role through out the current year, since Bocar A. BA the pandemic, has been well-recognized. the message has been well-established. Chief Executive Officer & Board However, Operators themselves are facing Member The post-COVID-19 world is more digitally- tremendous revenue-generation challenges, SAMENA Telecommunications driven than it had ever been, and will continued regulatory restrictions, taxation Council continue to be much more so than it is today. regimes and industry fees, all of which have While on one side the power of the digital a direct impact on how far, how much, and Times are calling for Operators infrastructure stands glaringly proven; on for how long the Operators can continue to focus on closely working with the other side, divides in broadband access with their voluntary offerings to help reduce players from other industries and levels, affordability and capacity as societies financial hardships for the end-users sectors not only to fulfill their own make the transition have also been firmly while living up to expectations. This merits revenue requirements and to self- demonstrated. Fortunately, as initiated by the consideration of policy-makers and incentivize further investments, the WEF, the public-private cross-sector regulators, who themselves face multiple but to also directly and proactively community has reacted swiftly to develop a challenges, to reduce financial pressures on help develop the 5G ecosystem. set of implementable measures to accelerate Operators and to help improve affordable The "5G+X" delved into during the digitally-driven recovery efforts and to access to broadband services for the end- the SAMENA Council Leaders' unearth new growth opportunities. Such users. Moreover, it is merited that relevant Summit 2020, which attracted the measures are centered on holistic national government bodies help accelerate 5G participation of industry minds digital strategies that make use of unused transformation in their respective markets, from 64 countries, will come to life national funds; focus on dedicating certain which, among other areas, requires building only through strong, materialized portions of the Covid recovery packages to cross-industry 5G incubation centers and collaboration, cooperation, and digital infrastructure development where it adopting approaches that not only allow in reaching out to each other to is most needed; and necessitate supporting for overcoming direct impediments to 5G overcome common challenges and SMEs across all industries in their efforts to deployment (such as spectrum interference to fulfill common objectives. benefit from digitization. and security issues), but which also catalyze adoption of industrial 5G among healthcare, SAMENA Council believes that public- manufacturing, transportation, and education private-people cooperation is essential for sectors in direct collaboration with Telecom addressing the digital inclusion imperative, Operators. which has been highlighted strongly after 4 JUNE-JULY 2020 FEATURED SAMENA TRENDS stc Speaks to SAMENA Council 5G is a critical element network in May 2018, stc has announced stc has been engaging with different that it is expanding its 5G network across verticals for different 5G use cases, for accelerating digital the Kingdom and achieving the highest Working with industry for smart campus transformational across reach level in the MENA Region and network concept that will support further worldwide. stc has also announced that digitization and diverse set of use cases multiple industries such it is working on completing the following implementation. In Healthcare, connecting as Oil & Gas, Healthcare, phases of spreading the 5G services on a multiple thermal cameras in different wider scale to ensure keeping up with the location backhaul by 5G to remote Public Sector, Education, newest global technologies, improving command and control site for remote Government etc., however, digital services, and enriching the monitoring and analysis. In the media and it benefits from additional customer experience across the Kingdom. entertainment, taking advantage of 5G high bandwidth and low latency by eliminating elements such as low stc emphasis on 5G commercial services the need for cabling/pre-cabling in latency, high speed, and is in line with the Kingdom's digital broadcast camera and replacing it with transformation plans, and the objectives a portable solution that transmits the edge computing is going of the National Transformation Program highest quality live video via 5G network. to unlock many industrial