Reports and Coverage

“Information technology can be a beacon of hope, allowing billions of people around the world to connect. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these connections… are more important than ever,” according to the UN secretary-general, António Guterres. This quote highlights the importance of information technology nowadays; an importance that was amplified in crises as well as in prosperous times. On May 17th, the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is celebrated to remind us about the role ICTs are playing today.

By Alaa Bawab, vice president for Enterprise Networking Business for Huawei Middle East

By Tobias Schubert, Marketing; Major Accounts; EMEA, Carrier Networks at Corning Optical Communications

At a time when digital transformation was on the agenda of companies, the coronavirus hit the world, leaving behind damaged economies and terribly impacted industries that had no other choice but to accelerate digitization.

Mondia Pay, Mondia’s digital payment entity, has announced that its Dynamic Smart Billing feature helped regional telcos optimize customer revenue by up to 50% since its launch in November last year.  

The Lebanese cabinet has approved to transfer the management of Alfa and touch from Orascom TMT and Zain respectively, to the ministry of telecommunications while preserving the legal entities of MIC1 and MIC2 to maintain both state-owned companies’ economic and market value and guarantee business continuity. This decision will not affect employees’ status and the services both operators offer to the Lebanese people.

During this unprecedented period that has challenged both health and economy, Etisalat has taken many steps to ensure that its network, services and teams are well equipped to support its customers. Etisalat teams are working non-stop to make sure that all its customers, including government departments, large enterprises, SMBs and subscribers across the country stay connected. With overall data traffic on the telcos’ network expected to surge exponentially, Etisalat’s advanced network is resilient, reliable and secure, and has sufficient flexibility to adapt to changing consumer and business demands. Etisalat offers all the connectivity tools and services people need to continue to communicate and conduct business including the fastest fixed broadband and mobile network in the region.

Spending on cloud infrastructure services grew 37% year-on-year to $29 billion during the first quarter of 2020, according to a report by Synergy Research Group. The revenue jump was at the size expected despite the COVID-19 outbreak.

The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has taken the world by storm since the beginning of 2020 and has essentially changed the ways in which we go about our daily lives. The way we learn, work, communicate and spend our leisure time has changed drastically as countries all over the world, one after the other, gradually shut down their airports, public areas and workspaces in an effort to contain the fast-spreading virus.

Linking the emergence of the novel coronavirus to 5G might seem absurd to some, but a great number of people have adopted this theory to justify the sudden appearance of the virus and its rapid spread. Health concerns related to 5G radiation were debated long before COVID-19, however, many have exploited this crisis to raise their voices and refuse 5G to be deployed.