Under the theme “Beyond 5G: The endless benefits of 5G to operators”, the panel’s moderator Toni Eid, CEO and founder of Telecom Review Group, has asked the panelists about their role as telecom leaders in a smart world connected by 5G.
Dr. Mohamed Madkour, VP Global Wireless Networks Marketing and Solutions, Huawei, shared a slide about 3 different levels of 5G – infrastructure, platform capabilities and industry ecosystem. “When we build 5G, we do not just construct a network, we enable new economy,” he said.
“We encourage building a simple efficient intelligent network that serves different scenarios and then from a platform of perspective, we enable a kind of a one-stop-shop; like a 5G market place. We use our expertise and leadership not just in connectivity but also in cloud computing and artificial intelligent (AI) to enable a wide range of industry ecosystems. Serving enterprises is actually about enabling their digital transformation.”
Alex Sinclair, CTO, GSMA, also commented that during the pandemic we saw the emergence of many massive trends and traffic increased tremendously due to the shift to online.
He also highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the finance sector. “Financially, in some countries, cash became obsolete because people didn’t want to touch money so they are transacting online. Digital transformation is propelling the world forward probably 5 years in some countries, because the necessity is the mother of invention. Our job really is to help things grow, that means trying to solve some of the practical problems and it doesn’t stop when u produce a technical standard. We solve problems in collaboration with our members and that’s really important.”
Mohamed Al Marzooqi, VP Technology Synergies at Etisalat Group stated that their daily operation and habit is to provide coverage and ensure a good quality of service.
“In the future we should give 5G more attention, notably in terms of R&D. Few operators in the world have their own R&D, and it will be a must in the future with 5G and AI. R&D today generates around more than 400 billion dollars worldwide. We as telecom operator, are trying to invest heavily in this part, to establish R&D to support us and our partners in the country and in the region we are serving.”
Moreover, he emphasized the importance of CSR. He added, “People do not talk about it much, with 5G, energy consumption will increase for example. One of our targets for 2050 is to use renewable energy.”
TELUS CTO, Dr. Ibrahim Gedeon agreed with everything said earlier and stated “the key challenge as Alex said, is how we integrate on board and pick what we want to do. “
Dr. Mohamed Madkour, VP Global Wireless Networks Marketing and Solutions, Huawei, added a final comment, “I think the world is so big, we just need to have clarity and define where the money is. And just by defining where the money is, we understand what the issue is and what are the network and operational requirements. So, we need to think big, start small and skill fast, then when we do that we will connect the whole world.”