Metaverse, 5G and digitization continued to transform the telecoms industry this year. du Chief ICT Officer (Acting) Jasim Al Awadi looks back at 2022 and shares what’s on his roadmap for 2023.
How is du supporting the government with its digital agenda?
At du, we are supporting the UAE government with a lot of things. We started building our 5G infrastructure two years ago, and our deployment has covered fully. We believe that this is the start of our digital era.
A lot of people are talking about the metaverse and 5G use cases but no one really knows what those technologies look and feel like. Can you tell us more about that?
In regards to the metaverse, we have showcased in GITEX one use case with RTA by converting one of their metro stations towards the metaverse. This project is called the ‘digital twin’ when you are converting all the assets to the digital world. The look and feel of it is mainly achieved by converting all the assets to a digital platform where the user can look into all the assets that are in the metro stations. They can do preventive maintenance on the spot, and those are the things that are meant to be supported by the metaverse. The metaverse is meant to convert the real world into a digital world where you can have full control with the minimal resources that you have.
What are the main objectives your enterprise achieved in 2022, and what are your future plans?
Overall, our main objective was to give awareness to our clients on what 5G is and the capabilities that 5G can provide for the business and local communities. 2022, for us, was a start in having proper use cases that can be used by our clients. Looking ahead to 2023, we will start with the actual production of 5G products that can be implemented in the market.
