Page 29 - SAMENA Trends - November-December 2019

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Zain Launches First 5G Roaming Service in MENA

between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

with this latest milestone 5G roaming agreement opening
countless opportunities to further enhance the mobile experience
for Zain customers as they travel the world, and as 5G becomes
more widespread with the advent of more 5G devices. Bader Al-
Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO, and Vice-Chairman
of Zain Saudi Arabia commented, “This momentous stride taken
on our 5G journey reinforces our global position at the forefront of
the implementation of this exciting technology. It is through the
vision and support of the country’s leadership in markets such as
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia that we can make such rapid progress in
this nascent area, and in turn expedite our 5G roll out in support
of both the New Kuwait 2035 Vision and Saudi Arabia’s Vision
2030.” Al-Kharafi continued, “Empowering nations and improving
the customer experience is something that Zain is passionate
about, and with the advent of 5G we see a whole new world of
opportunities to achieve this. We are transforming into a digital
lifestyle provider and are confident that our early investment in 5G
will help us consolidate this position and drive us to even greater
Zain Group, the leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets heights.” The roaming agreement between Zain Kuwait and
across the Middle East and Africa announces a regional first as its Saudi Arabia sets the ground for further 5G roaming agreements
operations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia successfully launch first within the Zain Group and beyond. Zain’s pioneering approach
5G roaming service in across the MENA region, with download to 5G means as soon as compatible devices begin to ship in
speeds reaching as high as 500 Mbps for both outbound and commercial numbers the mobile operator’s networks will be ready
inbound roaming. Zain has been one of the most ambitious 5G and capable to provide 5G services to customers immediately. Al
operators in the region, with its operation in Kuwait announcing Kharafi concluded, “The launch of 5G roaming reconfirms our
the commercialization of the service in May, and Zain Saudi Arabia success in achieving greater integration, extracting synergies
following in October with the launch of what was and remains the and expertise between our key regional operations.” Zain joins a
largest 5G network deployment in the region, and third largest in very select few operators globally to have tested and introduced
the world. Zain Kuwait and Zain Saudi Arabia between them count international 5G roaming and remains the only one to establish 5G
over 550 4G and 3G roaming agreements in over 215 countries, roaming between two countries in the MENA region.

Accenture Launches myNav, Cloud Platform to
Help Enterprises Navigate the Cloud Landscape

Accenture has launched myNav, a cloud research shows that nearly two-thirds of and future cloud technology investments.
platform that helps organizations design companies are not seeing the expected For example, myNav recommends the
and simulate different cloud solutions to benefits from their cloud migration application transformation approach
identify the ones that best fit their specific initiatives. myNav evaluates multiple for clients to accelerate their innovation
business requirements. Identifying the variables — including an organization’s in the cloud. “We built myNav based on
right cloud solution can be complicated, technology infrastructure, applications, our knowledge repository of more than
as there are multiple cloud providers and data, operational model and business 30,000 cloud projects and over 80 industry
cloud models, including public, private, outcomes — to identify the right solution solutions deployed worldwide in nearly
multi and hybrid. Further, many companies for enterprises, then simulates it at scale every industry,” said Bhaskar Ghosh, group
spend significant time and money to confirm its viability and refine the chief executive of Accenture Technology
migrating applications and data centers to business case. By providing a customized Services. “myNav uses this repository
the cloud only to find that the applications roadmap, myNav enables organizations to simulate optimal and scalable cloud
don’t always operate optimally. Accenture to maximize the return on their current architectures and solutions. By providing a

29 NOVEMBER 2019