In the framework of the discussion on ‘designing next-generation service providers’ network,’ the panelists touched upon the emergence of 6G technology and looked at ways of monetizing 5G with investment in IoT technology before new technologies would take over.
Hani Mohammad Yassin, Sr. Director/Technology Strategy, Etisalat Group said, “There are two kinds of IoTs, one that gathers small amounts of data and the other that produce huge amounts of data. Monetization will come from the latter. We are talking about robots in factories, medical machines, etc. These kinds of edge machines with computing power and generate a huge amount of data. So this data, need to be processed, organized. That’s where the big opportunity for monetization will come from for the operators.”
Adding to the conversation, Mohamed Farag, Customer Experience & Technical Strategy Director, Etisalat Misr said, “We are not providing voice and data commodities only anymore. On top of that, we are going to compete with OTTs. We have to be more agile and ensure the information coming from IT and study well what it means in terms of technology or engineering.”
Ramy Boctor, CTO, Vodafone Qatar said, “Traffic on 5G on its own is not going to generate that much revenue. Value addition on top of traffic is what is going to monetize what we invest. Our thought process would be how to add value to this traffic and make it more valuable. IoT and security as a service will add value. 5G is the starting point of a new era.”
In conclusion, it was agreed that on 5G networks monetization could be derived from added services rather than on data traffic and alone.