FINAL WORD
The critical
role of digital
infrastructure:
A view from the
Middle East
and Africa
At the beginning of the pandemic, Nokia worked
with operators to help them respond swiftly to
the first phase of reducing congestion through
network optimisation and upgrades. Mohamed
Samir, Vice President of Global Services for
Middle East and Africa, Nokia, explains the two
key priorities for operators in the next phase.
The Middle East and Africa is one of the most diversified
telecoms markets in the world. Stretching from Senegal to
Pakistan and from South Africa to Iraq, it spans regions with
highly advanced connectivity where 5G roll-outs are happening at
pace, as well as isolated rural areas with some of the most limited
connectivity on the planet. The market is, therefore, a microcosm of the
wider world, and at a time when half of the global population has been
under confinement, the challenges faced by its telecoms networks are
representative of those currently being faced across the globe.
Over just a couple of weeks, we have seen approximately 30% traffic
growth in MEA networks – the same kind of growth that we would
usually expect in a year. It is not just the scale of the increase that
is testing operators but also the significant behavioural changes as
whole populations move abruptly to a new digital way of working
and living, leaving city centres deserted and placing unprecedented
pressure on residential networks. Across several countries In MEA we
have noticed a massive increase of the usage of certain applications,
for example, Zoom traffic has increased by 1,000%, Webex by
500%, and Netflix by 50% – while YouTube usage is up 5–10% and
social networking apps like Instagram and Facebook have seen spikes
in traffic of 5–15%.
74 INTELLIGENTCIO
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