Zain, the leading digital service provider in Kuwait, showcased its leadership in adopting fifth generation wireless technology (5G) applications as the first operator to commercially launch 5G technology in the GCC region via the Kuwaiti market. The company recently participated at the 39th edition of The Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX Technology Week 2019). The international event, hosted in the United Arab Emirates, was organized by the Dubai World Trade Center, and featured the biggest global companies, organizations, and entities from the Telecom and IT industry.
Zain took part in a number of panel discussions last week represented by Zain Kuwait’s Chief Technical Officer Nawaf Al Gharabally and Zain Kuwait’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer Hamad Al Marzouq. The panel discussions featured many experts, professionals, and leaders from the world’s top ICT companies.
Zain Kuwait’s Chief Technical Officer Nawaf Al Gharabally participated in a panel discussion entitled Operator’s playground: Unlocking 5G commercialization in an untapped market, which came as part of the GITEX 5G Countdown Conference. During the discussion, Al Gharabally said: “5G opened up new horizons that were not possible in the past. Today’s latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, automation, augmented tech, and others are extremely reliant on transferring huge amounts of data in record times and with low latency. This was almost impossible before 5G”.
Al Gharabally added: “the impact of digital transformation not only affected the telecom sector, but extended to many other industries such as health, finance, education, and others. This opened up huge untapped opportunities, and we at Zain were keen on being the first in adopting 5G, not only in Kuwait, but across the region”.
Al Gharabally explained: “back in May, Zain was the first to announce that its network was fully ready for the commercial launch of fifth generation wireless technology (5G), and was the first operator to offer 5G technology in the GCC region via the Kuwaiti market with nationwide coverage of all areas in June. We succeeded in designing the first integrated network for 5G services built on a world-class infrastructure, fully launching the company’s potential within the digital community and further reinforcing our leadership in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. We are extremely proud of this huge feat”.
Zain Kuwait’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer Hamad Al Marzouq participated in a panel discussion entitled Adoption of 5G in B2B/Enterprise Market that came as part of Huawei’s 4th Middle East 5G Ecosystem Conference. During the discussion, Al Marzouq said: “5G is at the cornerstone of Zain’s ambition to lead in the Enterprise space in Kuwait. Use Cases across Health, Government, Financial, and Oil & Gas sectors are instrumental to the success of our Zain Enterprise Digital Strategy. We welcome Huawei and an ecosystem to help us develop those use cases and enrich our presence as an active partner of leading Kuwait’s digital transformation future”.
Al Marzouq also took part in a panel discussion organized by Ericsson entitled: Unlocking 5G Business Potential. During the discussion, Al Marzouq said: “at the moment, many of our enterprise services are powered by 4G LTE technology, and we will soon start implementing 5G in all our services and solutions as the technology continues to mature and as per the market’s needs. We expect IoT-based solutions to be the main area that will rely greatly on 5G, because of the huge data-transferring speeds IoT equipment rely on. We believe this will change the rules of the digital transformation game in all vital sectors”.
Last year, Zain participated in GITEX 2018 through its own dedicated booth as the only telecom company that represented the State of Kuwait in this leading global and regional event amongst the presence of international companies. Zain’s participation reflected its strategy to enrich its transformation into a fully integrated digital service provider, as the company started its digital transformation journey by launching many smart services and solutions to both consumers and businesses throughout the past years.
Through its participation at GITEX Technology Week, Zain showcased its capabilities as an active partner in achieving the goals of the Kuwait National Development Plan (New Kuwait 2035) that stems from His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah’s conceptualized vision of a new Kuwait by 2035, which is based on five expected outcomes and seven key pillars. Through its booth at GITEX, Zain provided the technologies required under each of the 7 Pillars to achieve the goals of the Kuwait National Development Plan.
At GITEX 2018, Zain offered its latest innovative solutions for empowering a smart life, a safe community, and an efficient business sector based on the 7 Pillars of the Kuwait National Development Plan, which are Smart Security, Smart Education, Smart Health, Smart Mobility, Smart Living, Smart Economy, and Smart Infrastructure.