Roll-Out of 5G In GCC Country-Wide Won’t Happen Soon, Ericsson Says

Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, which is working with leading telecom operators such as du, Etisalat and Kuwait’s Zain Group in the Arabian Gulf region, says it is too early to do a country-wide rollout of the 5G network.

5G is the name used to describe the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications, which is poised to include rapid data transfer rate, energy saving, cost reduction, and widespread device connectivity through Internet of Things.

“Deployment of 5G purely depends on the use-case and telecom operators. I believe it’s a too early to do a country-wide rollout, it doesn’t make business sense,” Wojciech Bajda, president of Ericsson in Gulf countries, told The National.

“But on the other hand, if you look at the US market, operators like Verizon and AT&T are rolling out 5G nationally. But they are targeting very specific use-case, which is fixed wireless access that means replacement of fibre.”

The 5G technology will enable digitalisation of 10 industries in particular – agriculture, manufacturing, energy and utilities, public safety, health care, public transport, media and entertainment, automotive, financial services and retail – Ericsson said in a study.

It also added that telecom operators in the UAE stand to gain an additional $3.3 billion (Dh12.1bn) in revenues by 2026, with manufacturing presenting the biggest opportunity. – The National