Reports and Coverage

By David Erlich, consulting director for B2B and strategic marketing, Sofrecom

Qatar, a high-income economy sitting at the heart of the Middle East, is home to almost three million people. Through Qatar’s National Vision 2030, the country aims to be a truly smart nation and strives to become an advanced society capable of sustaining its development while providing a high standard of living for everyone.

The discussion regarding a cost-sharing framework between telcos and digital content providers is resonating ever louder in Europe. As the region faces an economic inflection point, building long-term resilience requires a smarter and more innovative approach.

The Arbaeen Zeyara Pilgrimage is one of the biggest annual religious pilgrimages in the world, primarily to the Holy City of Karbala in central Iraq. From the 28th of August, millions of pilgrims marched towards Karbala, passing through the cities of Diwaniah, Najaf, Hilla and Naseryah.

If you can send your emails, post on social media or have a virtual meeting without hassle, consider yourself privileged, because as of 2022, one-third of the world’s population remains unconnected to the internet.

Industry visionaries have been inspired by this latest technology trend, which is the metaverse. Not a day goes by without a mention of metaverse at our offices, in our households or from our news centers. The applications of emerging technologies such as AI and automation are being used in innovative ways to bring about this digital marketplace; one where there will be no language barriers as end-to-end human-powered AI video conferences and audio will allow global teams to communicate with ease. The merging of human intelligence with AI automation power is expected to create opportunities for new ventures that have yet to be tapped. A recent roundtable for the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy explored, at length, the kinds of talent that Dubai-based companies should be targeting; the role of the private sector in strengthening the emirate’s value proposition to attract the brightest minds globally; and how businesses can capitalize on new consumer trends and opportunities emerging in the age of Web3 and the metaverse.

2022 has been marked by both tensions and innovations around the world. While necessarily picking up from a pandemic-stricken recent history, the global fiscal comeback is currently facing economic hurdles, the solutions for which technology must play a critical role in.

In an exciting Q4 announcement from the largest and fastest growing payments services provider in the MENA region, HyperPay has unveiled a new logo, along with a complete brand overhaul in view of exciting expansion plans set for 2023.

By Aloysius Cheang, chief security officer (CSO), Huawei UAE

You’ve upgraded your network, investing heavily in 4G, 5G, virtualization, the telco cloud and more. Now you discover that many of your service platforms have remained back in the stone age, causing you high OPEX for maintenance and inhibiting innovation. Basic network services are still required in the most modern networks; even SMS is still alive and a necessity in 5G. Moreover, many communications service providers (CSPs) determine that their sophisticated business services, such as UCC, VPBX and call center applications, are the stickiest and most profitable in their portfolios, so they must retain these valuable subscribers and modernize the services to gain market share.