Introducing Interconnect World Dubai
Digitalisation continues to transform the city and the region. This is accelerating Dubai's transition into a key hub for those organisations focused on driving technology forward. Digital growth may currently be strong but it will only maintain growth if the connectivity and network infrastructure is in place to support and enable it. How will accelerating growth and extended reach change Dubai's connectivity requirements, the role of its telco and network providers and its enterprise and Government customers? What role will Telco and comms providers play in optimising the Digital Era for Dubai and the wider region?
Interconnect World Dubai 2025 will bring to Dubai the unique focus established by Interconnect World through 2024 across the Asia Pacific. The Forum will focus on future trends and directions as they relate to the key commercial, technological and operational decisions that will shape the future of the telco and network ecosystem across the United Arab Emirates. This exclusive event will bring together the industry's leading telcos, ISPs, IXs, TMT investors, government agencies along with key decision makers from enterprise customers of telco and network services and equipment.
The fast-growing connectivity requirements of consumers, companies and infrastructure means providers face challenging investment, marketing and R&D decisions in order to remain competitive and profitable. The discussion will consider the emerging connctivity requirements of the UAE , the continuing evolution of technologies and protocols and the urgency of delivering competitive and relevant innovation in Telco and connectivity services. Experts will discuss effective and relevant ‘real world’ business, tech and customer strategies for adding value through interconnectivity.
The past few years have confirmed the importance of telecommunications to economies and societies across the world. As the transformation of regional economies and societies continues to accelerate, which growth drivers will assume greatest importance for telecommunications in the Middle East? What particularly will be the impact of AI and other digital technologies on demand and on operation? What will telecom, network and associated companies need to consider in order to capitalize on mega-trends? And what challenges does each trend bring?
The telecoms industry is now required to understand the business and organisational strategies of their clients rather than simply provide them with telco and related services. How are leaders in the telco industry dealing with this change particularly as AI and digitalisation moves forward? And how can the circle be completed by using knowledge and understanding of customer requirements to shape R&D through technological innovation?
The different economic and social profiles of the nations across the ‘Middle East’ and North Africa has usually meant that strategic and operational decisions have been made on a nation by nation basis. Trends towards pan-nationalism and a shared cultural identity across some nations, the recognition that ‘bigger is better’ in order to carry economic weight in a world of mega- economies and the examples of national groupings across the world (the EU, ASEAN) means that the case for decisions made with a view of MENA as a whole may be justified when it comes to data centre investment. How might this work? What opportunities would it create? What barriers might it face? What role might different states – Abu Dhabi, Saudi, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates – play in this?
This expert panel will look at key emerging requirements impacting connectivity infrastructure such as the demand for higher speeds and lower latency connectivity solutions, advances in networking technologies and the rise of IoT, AI, digital technologies together with edge computing. How will the considerations when planning, designing and building the connectivity eco-system change? What will be the impacts on the resulting network and equipment?
As technology advances so do the threats to its operation. As the flow of data increasingly becomes the focus of telco operations, how does this impact security issues for telco operators across the Middle East. The speed of change is bringing the industry into a new threat landscape against which existing defences may no longer be effective. In this session, we will take a close look at real-world case studies on threats to telco organisations and their customers, and best practices in addressing the evolving threat landscape.
AI and associated digital technologies now command considerable attention in terms of their impact across digital infrastructure, particularly as a source of demand for network and connectivity services. This has led to the evolution of the ‘AI data center’ – how will there be a similar step change for networks and connectivity? Attention will be paid also to the role of AI and other technologies in network management and operation. How will this trend and with what impact on workforce skillset requirements?
In the six years since its introduction, has 5G lived up to expectations and delivered on what was promised of it? Where has it excelled, where has it not? What can be learned for the launch of future generations and for the planned roll out of future technologies and telecommunication initiatives?
How can the telco sector across the Middle East withstand the ‘skills shortage’ that is currently impacting markets across the world? How is the rise of digital technologies such as AI impacting skills requirements? What strategies and policies can be put in place to cultivate current and future generations of workers? What will be the role of different stakeholder groups inside the United Arab Emirates and outside it? What partnerships should the telco industry be forming?
This panel will look first at the legislative situation in the United Arab Emirates and how recent and proposed legislation which deal with telco, consumer protection, critical infrastructure, market competition and standards impact the telecoms industry directly and indirectly. How does the rise of digital technologies – some of which already offer independence in operational decision making – impact the way in which tech legislation is drawn up and applied? Comparison will then be made across the nations of the Middle East in terms of regulation that appears to best balance the interests of all stakeholders in the telecommunications ecosystem.
Digitalisation is ushering in a new era across many forms of technology and infrastructure. How are the technologies core to digitalisation – AI, blockchain, cloud, IoT, augmented reality, robotics and others – impacting connectivity, telco and comms services and networks in terms of planning, design, research & development, network roll-out, operation? Which are the key technologies that will take connectivity forward and which are the key areas and issues left for future innovation?
