Telco Summit Panel Signals 5G-A Growth in Middle East

The opening day of the recent Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit 2024 included, among other events, a session titled “World First 5G-A Region Sets Sail.” 

At first glance, it might have seemed like just one piece of a wider array of interesting programming, but this was no ordinary conference panel. Rather, it’s a harbinger of accelerating development and commercialization of the next major evolution of wireless technology, 5G-Advanced – or 5G-A – in the Middle East region.

In his opening remarks, Toni Eid, CEO of Trace Media International & Founder of Telecom Review Group, likened the panel to an official launch of 5G-A in the Middle East, noting that multiple operators and other stakeholders had been making significant investments in the technology since last year.

“Over the past year, we saw 5G-Advanced move from testing to commercial deployment,” Eid said. “Telecom operators have also started to deploy 5G-Advanced networks at scale, accelerating development in multiple countries.”

The Middle East region has become a proving ground of sorts for 5G-A development, with operators like du and others prioritizing development and commercialization as a means of better fulfilling the original promise of 5G – both for operators and for their diverse customer segments. 

5G-A promises to usher in blazing-fast connectivity and help catalyze ARPU growth, in part because it should open up a large menu of new revenue-generating services. It’s also expected to boost the industry’s sustainability goals because 5G-A networks and technologies will be more energy efficient and thus reduce CO2 emissions.

The panel discussion that followed Eid’s opening remarks featured numerous telecom industry leaders in the Middle East region, including:

Fayez Abu Awad, Policy Director, MENA, GSMA

Khalid Al Awadi, Manager, Broadcasting and Space Services, TDRA UAE

Hasan Alshemeili, Head of Technology Planning, du

Dr. Ayman Elnashar, VP of Technology Strategy, Architecture & Innovation, e&

Ramy Boctor, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Qatar

Stelios Savvides, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Oman

Hicham Siblini, Chief Technology and Infrastructure Officer, Ooredoo Qatar

Allen Tang, President of ICT Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, Huawei MECA

Zoran Lazarevic, Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson MEA

Mohamed Samir, VP Middle East Market, Nokia

The group discussed a mix of recent achievements and emerging opportunities for 5G-A development in the region and globally – and what’s needed to succeed.

Recapping Recent Accomplishments

As Eid noted in his opening comments, it has been a high-velocity year in terms of 5G-A development in the Middle East. 

As part of its partnership with Huawei to make UAE a burgeoning 5G-A country, for example, du has launched its innovation center there to explore commercial use cases in areas like fixed wireless access, B2B applications, immersive XR experiences, and other services. The operator has already boosted uplink by 70% in UAE, among other milestones.

Meanwhile, Ooredoo Oman’s 5G-A testing has hit multiple high-water marks, including attaining a single-user peak rate of over 4.6 Gbps. 

Elsewhere in the region, Vodafone Qatar demonstrated peak speeds topping 10 Gbps, which is credited to advanced technologies such as mmWave frequencies, Massive MIMO, beamforming, and advanced modulation techniques. Ooredoo Kuwait successfully completed 5G-Advanced mmWave technology testing in collaboration with the country’s top ICT regulator, which also approved new frequencies for 5G-A, including the shutdown of 3G services next year to reassign mobile capacity to 5G usage.

And there were many more highlights during the past year – with more sure to come in the year ahead and beyond.

Looking Ahead To What’s Needed Next

For all of the recent efforts and milestones, there’s much left to be done to ensure 5G-A success. The panelists discussed a variety of ideas for how operators and the broader industry can accelerate 5G-A strategies. Some of the major highlights include:

Taking an open approach to APIs: The panel emphasized the value of open APIs to foster a thriving 5G-A ecosystem, including exposing APIs to content providers and various other enterprises so that they can leverage 5G-A capabilities.

“A system that is open is more likely to grow faster than a closed system,” said panelist Fayez Abu Awad, Policy Director, MENA, GSMA.

Promoting cross-industry collaboration: Panelists also stressed the importance of collaborating within the industry, even among companies that might ultimately be business competitors. This will be particularly valuable in terms of identifying and monetizing new 5G-A use cases, which will be crucial to commercialization but also to justifying investments in new 5G-A technologies – monetizable use cases help show the path to ROI.

For example, the discussion also covered the need to leverage 5G-A capabilities – such as faster uplink enhanced, MIMO enhancement, and reduced bandwidth for RedCap devices in IoT settings – specifically to identify and pursue new use cases.

Optimizing spectrum utilization: The session also noted the need to work with ITU and other stakeholders – including participation in the WRC-27 agenda – to secure and enhance spectrum utilization.

Embracing AI for network operations and more: No telco industry event in 2024 would be complete without discussion of AI, and this panel was no exception. AI is seen as a great enabler for network automation and the evolution from NSA to SA architecture, and to more intelligent networks overall. But it’s also seen as a powerful lever for expanding and enhancing customer experience in various ways as well.

Expect the Middle East region to continue to be a great launchpad for 5G-A development and commercialization, one that will have global impacts and 5G-A becomes a reality.