The Sky is the limit

stakeholders. In many incidences,
SAMENA Council’s intervention and efforts
to fill communication gaps have been
instrumental in bringing stakeholders
together on unified platforms. An example
of this is the first-time closed-door meeting
of telecom operators’ CEOs and the
ITU’s leadership, which SAMENA Council
facilitated earlier this year in order to
elevate the private sector’s viewpoints to
Administration level consideration.
What do you consider to be the greatest
challenges that the telecom industry
currently faces?
The telecom industry has a lot to look
forward to, if we are able to address some
fundamental issues promptly and with
stakeholders’ much-needed cooperation
and collaboration with each other. SAMENA
regional countries need to quickly adapt to
the new broader data-centric ICT world that
is rapidly replacing the narrowly focused
telecoms environment.
There is a dire need to re-evaluate
the traditional regulatory approach to
communications services in view of
asymmetries that exist between telecom
services and over-the-top services. To
this effect, the wholesale and the retail
economic market structure has to be
revamped, which need to be backed up
by holistic ICT based national broadband
visions, policies and initiatives.
All stakeholders also need to ensure
confidence in the industry’s use of data.
Similarly, confidence needs to be ensured
on spectrum resources, which should be
made accessible as promptly as possible
and at moderate costs. Both the pricing and
the timing of the release of new bands for
4G and 5G are of paramount importance.
Lastly, among the most importat industry
issues, it is crucial to understand the
consequences of excessive taxation and
to take steps to reduce taxes, lessen the
burden on telecom-only industry, and
eliminate redundant regulatory fees.
So then what would you describe the
industry should really be focusing on at
the moment and over the foreseeable
future?
First of all, there is an urgency for removing
ambiguities of laws concerning data
management an aligning with the realities
There is a dire need to re-evaluate the traditional
regulatory approach to communications services in
view of asymmetries that exist between telecom
services and over-the-top services”
of the cross-border data world. Doing so is
necessary for economic growth and costreduction
efficiencies. Secondly, despite the
use of the acronym ICT, regulations remain
telecom – centric in an ever-converging
industry, causing an asymmetric effect:
that is, regulated (telecoms) versus nonregulated
(IT-based OTTs, IoT, etc.).
In our view, digital services, regulation of
data, spectrum, and taxation are the issues
that will have significant impact on how
the industry evolves and how it is enabled
by the stakeholders to play its ever-more
central role toward achieving the desired
digital economic impact. The market
must remain sustainable and fair both
for the largest investors of infrastructure
-- that is telecom operators -- and for the
smallest innovative disruptors. Addressing
these priority issues could also provide
good opportunities for both private
and government sector stakeholders
to refine their relationships with each
other, overcome traditional gaps in
communication and standpoints, and pave
a path for both industry growth and human
progress.
Is the industry prepared to truly benefit
from the IoT environment and bring the
benefit to the end-user?
Individually speaking, there are companies,
which are aggressively pursuing and making
good progress on IoT. However, for it to
succeed as a proper ecosystem, IoT requires
standardization, and, at this initial stage,
it may mean more to manufacturers and
vendors rather than to telecom operators.
Business models have to surface for
telecom operators to visualize real value
in IoT. In any case, we have to understand
IoT beyond what may simply meet the eye.
It is an entirely new paradigm shift within
the technological norms and capability that
we currently possess. IoT will be the most
complex ecosystem that we will have ever
witnessed, and it requires complex and
constructive stakeholder cooperation.
One of the immediate steps to accelerate
growth and foster development would be
to address the scarce resources challenge.
Many of the regional markets have opaque
or low grade spectrum management
planning. Spectrum policies need to be put
in place and applied in a timely manner
November 2016
37