The roll-out of 5G networks is costly in the face of uncertainty surrounding use cases, the dependency on scale and adequate business models. Yet, 5G networks can help deliver public services, contribute to better resource management in urban and rural areas, including energy and traffic management, as well as water and crop management. They can contribute to improvements in healthcare, the delivery of education, and so much more, and thereby contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs. 5G network deployment models and corresponding digital services will differ significantly from current deployment and delivery models of e.g. traditional telecoms services, given their cross-industry and cross-sector applicability. Moreover, some elements of the value chain of 5G-enabled services may be spread across different countries and regions due to their scale dependencies. Different countries adopt different solutions to advance and incentivize 5G network deployment and share the burden of funding, including the push of private 5G networks in e.g. Germany, where a single company building, corporate campus or agricultural area can connect employees’ mobile devices solely to whatever resources the company wants to make available, without necessarily including access to the public internet. In China, the Shenzhen government compensated for every standalone base station deployed and heavily compensated each telecom operator. Other countries and regions including Europe, America, and the Middle East, as well as Japan and South Korea have all provided various supportive policies and subsidies to boost the construction of 5G. To give a few examples, South Korea has cut taxes on 5G deployment by 3% to support applications of 5G in vertical industries; the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait have invested heavily to build 5G-based smart cities; the US is subsidizing US$20.4 billion to support broadband coverage in rural areas, and Germany is investing 20 billion euros to build 5G base stations.

This panel discusses different partnerships, funding and business models for 5G network and digital services deployment and assesses its pros and cons in different country contexts.

• What types of 5G network partnerships and collaborative efforts are bearing fruit and see traction in the market and across different countries?
• What types of business models are surfacing?
• What is government’s role in 5G network deployment and what types of incentives are provided by governments?
• Are private 5G networks at the individual company or factory level a way forward to sharing the investment burden?

Over the coming few years, operators will invest heavily to build higher network density, add spectrum, and upgrade active equipment. As they do so, they will seek to avoid a repeat of the 4G rollout experience. Although 4G, launched in 2012, catalyzed a revolution in the adoption of data services, operators struggled to generate additional revenues from end-users to cover the investments. Consumers continually expect to have more — more data, more connectivity, more functionality — while paying the same or less. This is one of the reasons that the total shareholder returns of the top 39 telecom companies have lagged that of wider stock indices over the past three years. And since telecom companies compete strongly on having the best networks, they face competitive pressure to make 5G investments, even if they try to do so in the most cost-effective way.

This panel will discuss the key monetization opportunities available to operators going beyond simply charging customers more for faster data.

• What are the key monetization opportunities that arise for operators in Bahrain and beyond?
• Are models of B2B2X a viable avenue to be explored through partnership and collaboration?

Cross-border digital connectivity is key to enabling digital technologies and business models to scale and ultimately benefit everyone. Current regulatory frameworks are national in scope and are therefore may not be suitable or sufficient for addressing current issues and tensions that arise from digitalization and its varying pace of adoption across the borders.

This panel will address questions concerning how regulatory frameworks need to be adapted to ensure that digital technologies can scale across borders and aid network operators to digitally transform to share in the digital revolution and continue to compete at the service level and move up the value stack.

• What are the key changes needed for regulatory frameworks to adapt to the new digital realities?
• Is cross-sector collaborative or horizontal regulation the way forward?
• How can regional regulation be implemented to ensure that scale for smaller economies can be secured?