Page 79 - SAMENA Trends - September 2019

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Kuwait Got Potential to Implement Digital Transformation

Secretary-General of The Supreme and digital infrastructure compared to the markets in the past five years, witnessing
Council for Planning and Development size of the country, according to a report strong competition especially with the
Dr. Khaled Mahdi said that Kuwait has a by Huawei China. He stated that digital existence of China as a global competitor.
clear strategy and a roadmap to achieve revolution has configured new global
digital transformation and technical
development. This came in a speech by
Dr. Mahdi during a seminar organized by
Kuwait Institute for Public Policies at the
At the General Secretariat of the Supreme
Council for Planning and Development
(SCPD) headquarter. Kuwait has highly
developed technical infrastructure in the 5G
technology, this indicates Kuwait’s ability
to move towards digital technology, which
is one of the most prominent development
goals of the state, he added. He pointed
out that Kuwait occupies the second place
in the world depending on 5G technology
after South Korea, due to number of
transmitters dedicated to this technology,

Aftel Plots 4G Launch by Year-End

State-backed provider Afghan Telecom following Afghan Wireless Communication low level of broadband take up: ‘currently
(Aftel) – which offers mobile services Company (AWCC), which switched on the internet penetration is around 19.6% and
under the Salaam brand – has announced nation’s first cellular 4G network in May with the availability of cheap smartphones,
plans to launch commercial 4G services 2017. The official noted that it expects this figure will go up significantly.’ As
by the end of the year, the National quotes to gain around five percentage points of another potential driver of subscriptions,
Aftel COO Mohammad Bashar Niazi as market share from the 4G launch, boosting the provider noted the demand for mobile
saying. The activation would potentially its share from roughly 11% to around 16% banking and other financial services.
make Aftel the second mobile provider by 2020. Commenting on the potential for
to launch an LTE system in the country, growth, the COO highlighted Afghanistan’s

Touch Switches on Lebanon’s First 5G Site at

HQ

Lebanese state-owned mobile officially conducted Lebanon’s first
operator Touch – managed by Zain commercial 5G trial and today we are
Group – announced in a press release proud to be the first mobile operator to
that it has launched the country’s launch the first 5G site in Lebanon, a
first 5G mobile site, located at its crucial step that will soon allow us to
headquarters in downtown Beirut. offer the most innovative products and
Data speeds of 1.4Gbps have been services to our customers in consumer,
tested at the site, with latency of less business, IoT, and smart cities sectors
than 6ms. Touch says that 5G-enabled … Together with Zain Group and the
devices will be available at the HQ Ministry of Telecommunications,
for further testing and demos. Touch we will soon make 5G a commercial
CEO Emre Gurkan said: ‘Last year, we reality.’

79 SEPTEMBER 2019