ICT
From The Report: Saudi Arabia 2016
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Saudi Arabia is the biggest ICT market in the Middle East, with annual sector spending expected to reach about SR140bn ($37.3bn) by 2017. At a time of shrinking oil revenues, the government has identified ICT as a key driver of smart, cost-effective solutions for government and commerce alike, and as a major pillar of the Kingdom’s long-term development strategy, Vision 2030. However, there are also significant challenges around data security, as well as the need to nurture the human capital required to serve the Kingdom’s rapidly developing digital economy.

This chapter contains interviews with Ahmed Farroukh, CEO, Mobily; and Khalid Balkheyour, President and CEO, Arabsat.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Tech savvy: Public and private actors prepare for dynamic sector growth
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With annual expenditure expected to reach close to SR140bn ($37.3bn) by 2017, Saudi Arabia is the biggest ICT market in the Middle East. At a time of shrinking hydrocarbons revenues, the government has identified ICT as a key driver of smart, cost-effective solutions for government and commerce alike, and as a major pillar of the Kingdom’s long-term development strategy, Vision 2030. However, there are also significant challenges related to data security, as well as the need to nurture the human…

Interview

A transformative role: OBG talks to Ahmed Farroukh, CEO, Mobily
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Interview:Ahmed Farroukh How can mobile operators reduce the burden on the mobile wireless broadband networks created by high data consumers? AHMED FARROUKH: The mobile wireless broadband, by its nature, is not suited for unlimited data consumption. On the other hand, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) is perfectly designed for this sort of consumer behaviour. Therefore, we need to shift the high data consuming customers from mobile broadband to fixed broadband such as FTTH. At this stage, applying…

Analysis

Long-term evolution: Investments in new technology are driving sector expansion
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Telecommunications companies in Saudi Arabia are continuing to invest in new generations of technology that will enhance the user experience for mobile broadband customers. Both Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) and Zain have partnered with China’s Huawei to introduce systems that have produced network throughput speeds of 1 Gbps. As 4G LTE technology improves, the two companies intend to offer customers so-called 4.5G services that will enable the internet of things and machine-to-machine…

Interview

Band together: OBG talks to Khalid Balkheyour, President and CEO, Arabsat
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Interview:Khalid Balkheyour How is the satellite industry overcoming the limitations of the standard frequencies of bands to accommodate increasing demand? KHALID BALKHEYOUR: Due to increasing demand for satellite business services and the congestion of orbital positions with new satellites covering populated and non-populated areas of the world, the International Telecommunication Union has approved the assignment of new frequency bands for the satellite industry in the Ku and Ka bands.…

Analysis

Silver linings: The forecast is bright for data centres and cloud services
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With growth in demand for data centres and managed and cloud services expected to be in the double and triple digits, there appears to be significant opportunity in this segment of Saudi Arabia’s ICT market. Pressure on departmental expenditures in the public sector and a subsequent slowing of growth in the private sector could act as drivers for this expansion as customers seek cost-saving synergies. However, there are also issues to address, including security fears, regulation and the development…