Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region are leading the adoption of 5G technology in infrastructure compared to others operating in the consumer space, said Bocar a, CEO SAMENA Telecommunications Council.
Speaking at the Global Cybersecurity Forum in Riyadh, SAMENA Telecommunications Council CEO Bocar Ba said the idea of 5G as a mere evolution of 4G is a misconception.
“Many countries have promoted 5G as a consumer platform, a simple evolution from four to five. The way we address it in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and UAE is (via) infrastructure and environment,” said Ba while speaking at the forum.
The council is a nonprofit industry association based in Dubai that serves as a unifying voice for telecom operators across 25 countries, focusing on 5G since 2018.
“While other regions of the world may speculate the rate at which 5G technology has delivered on its promise, Gulf countries have seen it as a shift in the infrastructure of connectivity and are on the right path to deliver on its initial promise,” Ba added.
However, Kyriacos Kokkinos, Cyprus’s former minister of innovation and digital policy, felt that the technology is far from gathering a global affirmation.
“It did not deliver on the promise yet; it’s gaining traction. We’ve made the mistake of overexaggerating it. It is evolutionary rather than revolutionary from the 4G,” said Kokkinos while adding that there has been no successful 5G deployment at scale.
He also countered Ba’s view that the marketing of 5G as a consumer service rather than an ecosystem has stifled the potential of the technology.
Other panel participants opined that it was too early to comment as the technology was still in its infancy and could not be written off as a failure.
“By saying no, it did not deliver up to the expectations doesn’t mean that 5G failed. On the contrary, it’s been a very successful deployment technically. Remember, 5G is just three years old,” said Mohammed Ben Amor, director general of the Arab Information and Communication Technology Organization.
Tunis-based AICTO is a regional organization that promotes the development of information and communication technologies infrastructure and services.
Looking to the future, the panelists expressed their hopes for 6G technology, which is in the early stages of research and is expected after 2030.
“One thing for sure is that 6G will deliver incredible speeds, 100 times faster or more than 5G. But it’s not just that it’s much more than high speed,” said AICTO’s Amor.
He added that 6G will see a network of networks that will work hand in hand with other connectivity technologies like satellite and space communication, and the industry should collectively look at exploiting it effectively.
Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2402046/business-economy