In today’s highly interconnected and digital world, the possibilities that 5G technology is highlighting are endless with the GCC region at the forefront of this 5G-enabled transformation.
Case in the point is the recently signed agreement between Saudi Arabia’s Mobily and Ericsson to further strengthen the former’s position in 5G services and accelerate the use of 5G applications by all sectors and consumers in Saudi Arabia. The program allows partnerships between communications service providers, leading companies and startups aiming to develop innovative solutions and applications over 5G.
To talk more about regional opportunities linked to 5G, Arabian Business spoke to Ekow Nelson, vice president and head of Global Customer Unit Etisalat and Pakistan at Ericsson Middle East & Africa and Alaa Malki, CTO, Mobily.
The interview also looked at the duo’s partnership on sustainability where Mobily has announced an agreement with Ericsson to recycle expired and discarded electronic devices in ways that contribute to preserving the environment.
Mobily has announced an agreement with Ericsson to recycle expired and discarded electronic devices in ways that contribute to preserving the environment.
What are Ericsson’s regional plans for the upcoming year?
EN: In the Middle East, and mainly in GCC, a lot of our strategy is based around 5G and how to transform the digital industries in those countries because they are the most advanced in the region.
In Africa, it is a little bit different because 4G connectivity or penetration is low. There is a lot that can be done with 4G which remains under-exploited so our focus, as Ericsson in Africa, is how to ramp up 4G connectivity across the continent and to deliver the benefits of the AppEconony.
In the GCC we are working with operators such as Mobily to enable them to monetise the opportunity that 5G connectivity presents.
What are the different verticals that stand to benefit the most from 5G and which of those, in Saudi Arabia, are becoming more open to embracing 5G?
EN: 5G is not only for specific verticals, it’s a very high-speed, low-latency connectivity platform for everything and the verticals supported will be different for different countries.
But for us in this region we have to look at where our customers are, so clearly ports and logistics are of interest to us. Oil and gas is also of interest to us as is manufacturing in places like Turkey or Saudi Arabia. These will be among the most important ones and of course there’s the traditional entertainment media which has always been part of this ecosystem.
Mobily was the first-rated provider globally to make heavy investments in 5G.
What is the appetite for 5G among the region’s consumers?
AM: Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf general, is a very young country where 65 percent of the population is under the age of 30 and so stirring the appetite is very easy here.
Mobily was the first-rated provider globally to make heavy investments in 5G. Back in 2020, when there was a decline in investment globally, the only country which was investing heavily was Saudi Arabia.
That’s a very clear vision from the government that we need to build the infrastructure which could create potential new opportunities around this technology.
How will 5G and IoT technologies further accelerate digital transformation countries in the region, and especially in Saudi Arabia?
AM: Mobily has the largest IoT network in the Middle East. Once you have the carpets of narrowband IoT, any kind of application can come in with a very minimum cost and so this will help the business-sector to grow. When it comes to 5G, you need to connect everything [for it to perform at its maximum efficiency].
EN: I’m old enough to remember when we had only fixed networks and you would have to call people at their homes. With mobile, we went from connecting places to connecting people wherever they were. And now we are connecting things at last and we’re going to connect everything.
Our vision is about limitless connectivity, but the challenge is how you manage that complex mesh of connectivity. The analytics that you get out of that gives us a wealth of information that allows us to build very complex use-cases and applications that we can’t even dream of now, which is why we have the tagline “Imagine Possible.”
Could you give us insight on your recent partnership with Mobily around 5G services and application?
EN: We’ve been working with Mobily since the mid-2000s and were one of the first to partner with them for their 3G dongles which provided connectivity for PCs.
We work with Mobily in different areas, so this is perhaps one of the most comprehensive partnerships we have with any customer and it’s been a very fruitful partnership.
We’ve also worked with them on 5G, and we were one of the first to deploy 5G in the region, so really, we are proud of the confidence that Mobily placed in us and very grateful for it.
AM: When it comes to vendor-relationships, Ericsson is more of a partner [than a vendor]. We have very successful stories with Ericsson in all aspects.
Ekow Nelson and Alaa Malki.
Could you tell us more about your sustainability initiatives and the agreement you signed today around that?
EN: Sustainability is really important for all of us in the telecom industry – we are all responsible for monitoring our carbon dioxide emissions and we’re all dedicated to not just reducing them but to combat climate change as well.
In that line, Mobily approached us to partner-up and utilize our initiative in Ericsson which is called Product Take-Back Program where, once a product gets to its end-of-life, we ensure that it is either recycled or disposed of in a responsible way. So, we’ve entered into this agreement for the Product Take-Back with Mobily to co-manage their waste in the most environment friendly fashion.
Overall, in terms of sustainability, we’re also reducing the amount of carbon consumption and CO2 emissions in the products that we build and trying to show that ICT can be used to reduce the climate change challenges that we all face.
AM: Using our resources in a sustainable manner is very important to us and is in line with Saudi’s Vision 2030. The crown prince himself said he wants Saudi Arabia to have the kingdom’s homes running purely on renewable energy by 2030. You would think that a country like Saudi Arabia, which produces oil, wouldn’t be so eager for that, but it is part of Vision 2030 that the kingdom contributes to the global battle against the impacts of climate change.
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