“With Optiva as our partner, we feel confident to execute our digital transformation strategy and play our role in the Oman 2040 vision. Optiva’s cloud-native technology leadership and automation framework will allow us to launch services faster as we embark on the next phase of our growth with 5G and new digital services,” said Samy Ghassany, COO of Omantel.

There will also be a number of technical workshops and related events like the Industry Summit, the finals of Africa IoT & AI Challenge, Women in Tech Summit, IEEE Summit for 5G Technologies.

Looking patterns of 5G, it is gaining traction faster than 4G, which was launched over a decade ago. This is due in part to the abundance of 5G-enabled smartphones on the market. According to Ericsson Mobility Report from November 2021, we expect 4.4 billion 5G subscriptions by the end of 2027, accounting for over half of all mobile subscriptions worldwide.

“Distributed cloud models such as 5G and multi-access edge computing networks have the potential to drastically change the CSP industry, delivering high-bandwidth, low latency services to network customers,” said Dilip Pillaipakam.

Governments across the Middle East have recognized that the future is digital, making it a cornerstone of national development plans. For example, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiative, includes an elaborate Digital Economy Policy, reflecting its significance to the country. This policy aims to increase the digital economy’s share of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in line with other leading global economies.