Jawad Abbassi, head of MENA at GSMA;  Nasser bin Sulaiman Al-Nasser, group chief executive of STC; Hatem Dowidar, chief executive of Etisalat International and John Giusti, chief regulatory officer at GSMA during GSMA Mobile 360 in Dubai. GSMA
Jawad Abbassi, head of MENA at GSMA;  Nasser bin Sulaiman Al-Nasser, group chief executive of STC; Hatem Dowidar, chief executive of Etisalat International and John Giusti, chief regulatory officer atShow more

5G will not offer a huge change for consumers, Etisalat executive says



Avid technology users will have to wait two to three more years for the luxury of 5G speeds on their smartphones or home WiFi connection – and even then it won’t make a huge difference, according to the chief executive of Etisalat International.

“Let’s be very clear ... because we talk about 5G all the time, there is no consumer proposition for 5G,” said Hatem Dowidar, speaking on a panel at GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) Mobile 360 in Dubai. “So today there are no consumer devices for 5G.”

He predicted that next year there may be “one or two consumer devices that will work best with 5G”.

“In 2020 or maybe later, we will start seeing consumer devices for 5G.”

Mr Dowidar said that from a consumer perspective, 5G, or fifth-generation technology, will not be especially different from its predecessor 4G.

“The way 4G is evolving, it is providing excellent speed and low latency for most of the services,” he said.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority allocated bandwidth to Etisalat and du this year to establish 5G networks in the agriculture, automotive, healthcare and education sectors in 2019.

5G will offer users three benefits: greater speed, lower latency and the ability to connect several devices at once. Its connectivity speed enables safe pursuit of robotics-led surgeries and self-driving vehicles.

“5G will be very important in the fields of tele-medicine, autonomous cars and in other industry applications like robotics and where almost real-time applications are needed,” said Mr Dowidar. “This is what we are going to see in the next two to three years.”

In 2017, the mobile industry contributed about $165 billion to the Mena economy, equivalent to 4 per cent of the gross domestic product, according to GSMA. This contribution is expected to increase to more than $200bn by 2022, driving new services across the region in fields such as robotics, AI and autonomous vehicles. By 2025, 5G will account for 16 per cent of total connections in these markets, GSMA added.

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“It is imperative that the region’s governments create a regulatory environment that allows 5G to flourish,” said John Giusti, GSMA chief regulatory officer. “This includes releasing sufficient spectrum, so that businesses and citizens can fully enjoy the innovative new services that 5G will deliver, as well as the resulting socioeconomic benefits.”

Telecom operators in the UAE stand to gain an additional $3.3bn in revenues by 2026 from the digitalisation of industries through 5G, according to a report from Swedish telecom company Ericsson.

GSMA is a trade body that represents the interests of mobile networks.

Race%20card
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press

Profile of Hala Insurance

Date Started: September 2018

Founders: Walid and Karim Dib

Based: Abu Dhabi

Employees: Nine

Amount raised: $1.2 million

Funders: Oman Technology Fund, AB Accelerator, 500 Startups, private backers

 

Honeymoonish
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elie%20El%20Samaan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENour%20Al%20Ghandour%2C%20Mahmoud%20Boushahri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
FA Cup quarter-final draw

The matches will be played across the weekend of 21 and 22 March

Sheffield United v Arsenal

Newcastle v Manchester City

Norwich v Derby/Manchester United

Leicester City v Chelsea

In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20myZoi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Syed%20Ali%2C%20Christian%20Buchholz%2C%20Shanawaz%20Rouf%2C%20Arsalan%20Siddiqui%2C%20Nabid%20Hassan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2037%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Initial%20undisclosed%20funding%20from%20SC%20Ventures%3B%20second%20round%20of%20funding%20totalling%20%2414%20million%20from%20a%20consortium%20of%20SBI%2C%20a%20Japanese%20VC%20firm%2C%20and%20SC%20Venture%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed