Intelligent Connectivity

Our world is changing very rapidly and the one thing that is driving this evolution is ‘Technology’. The potent combination and fusion of 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and smart platforms – Intelligent Connectivity - will be a real game-changer in the coming years.

As you have already seen from the theme defined for this discussion, the intent is to explore the benefits that Intelligent Connectivity could bring to us, and how it may be Vital to building the Digital Economy, and how we can Visualize its Impact in Boosting Business & Innovation.

This is precisely the point: everything is turning digital, from cars to cities to services to machines to everything.

The Connectivity is simply becoming Intelligent!

Any industry will need to adjust to this new reality. However, this requires a new generation of communication networks, and when we talk about Intelligent Connectivity, we talk about 5G.

No doubt, 5G will become the future networks infrastructure.

Everybody and everything will use 5G. Anywhere, at any time, and on the move, always best connected with almost zero delay and limitless capacity. Today, we can witness that the industry is on the front to continue the journey towards a connected world.

Intelligent Connectivity will mark the beginning of an era of highly contextualised and personalised experiences, underpinned by ubiquitous hyper connectivity. It is set to affect almost every aspect of our daily lives from the way we consume entertainment to the way in which we learn and interact with colleagues. It will give people the information they need in an instant making our lives more productive and efficient. It will impact how entire industries innovate and operate, how societies interact and thrive and how economies flourish.

These technologies will be the fundamental enabler of digital economies globally and in the region. Digitization enabled by broadband infrastructure, data centres, cloud, mobility, and digital services will have significant direct contribution to GDP by generating new businesses, creating jobs and improving productivity and efficiency of value chains across industries. Digitization will develop the non-oil services sector, foster Innovation and entrepreneurial culture and optimize spending.

The real-world data collected by the IoT will fuel machine learning & AI, to enable greater automation and improving decision-making.

Telecom players are well positioned to create and capture USD $10 trillion incremental value (value to industry and society) from global digitization opportunities in the next decade in other industries. Industries that will benefit the most from digitization enabled by Intelligent Connectivity will be Media & Advertising, Utilities, Logistics, Automotive, and e-Commerce.

In addition to this, there is an opportunity of USD 2 trillion with digital transformation of the telecom industry itself in the next decade.

Intelligent connectivity will enable ground-breaking and exciting new services and experiences across industries in the following areas:

1.     Entertainment: With 5G, digital entertainment is set become both richer and more social. High-speed wireless connectivity will deliver 4K and 8K video, holograms, AR, VR and XR applications for gaming and immersive TV, while bringing people together to enjoy live events, such as sports and concerts.

2.     Transportation: Vehicles will relay their position to other road users in real-time, enabling intelligent connectivity to instruct vehicles when to slow down and when to accelerate, thereby removing the need for traffic lights, speed cameras and other systems.

3.     Industry 4.0: Intelligent connectivity is set to drive a fourth industrial revolution in which computers and robots continually optimize production and maintenance in highly flexible factories and plants. 5G will deliver ultra reliable and low latency connectivity by employing edge computing and network slicing, which allows specific services to be prioritized.

4.     Continuous Health Monitoring: Individuals will routinely wear connected wellness and security monitors providing continuous information about their biometrics, while enabling emergency alerts in the event of a fall or an attack.

5.     Immersive Education: trainee engineers, mechanics and medics could learn how to perform specific tasks by following instructions relayed via AR or by using VR simulations. Similarly, 5G could enable these technologies to be used to teach science and geography students about specific habitats and environments.

6.     Waste not, want not: Consumers and companies will have real-time information on everything from soil acidity to water pollution to the availability of parking spaces, increasing efficiency and reducing waste, while better managing energy usage.

7.     Smarter cities and buildings: Connected sensors will give municipalities, organisations and individual citizens the ability to monitor what is happening in and around their properties and control access.

8.     Smarter and sharper security: Continuously connected cameras, sensors and alarms will make both private properties and public places more secure, while cloud-based facial recognition systems could be used to identify and spot offenders in real time.

The key enabler for Intelligent Connectivity is 5G, which is expected to contribute USD $ 2.2 trillion to the global economy in the next 15 years.(source GSMA).

Out of this large opportunity, 5G is expected to be USD 620 billion revenue opportunity for telecom operators by 2026.

Globally, IoT market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Estimates suggest there will be more than 5 billion IoT connections globally by 2026 and the total revenue from the IoT value chain is expected to be USD $201 bn by 2025. (Reference: Analysys Mason).

For us in STC, Keeping current with the ongoing cross-industry disruption and aspirations of KSA Vision 2030, STC is successfully executing its ‘DARE’ strategy with a vision of becoming a leading digital services player in the MENA region.

Our strategy is based on growth in adjacencies such as digital financial services, media and advertising, IT services, and new innovative digital platforms – IoT, Cloud, Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Digital Identity.

Our plans for 5G deployment in KSA in the coming years shows a clear commitment and belief from our side to the opportunity of Digital Connectivity. 

STC is well positioned to ensure that our region is among the first to reap benefits of 5G technology on commercial scale.

STC, like other players, is looking to innovative and is working on wide range of families of uses cases that range from Smart Hajj to Smart Retail to Industry 4.0, and many others. 

While 5G is going to be a key pillar for Intelligent Connectivity, we believe the focus should be to employ multiple technologies to enable these new services. In addition to investments in 5G, we are heavily investing in fiber infrastructure across the Kingdom as part of the National Broadband Plan (part of NTP 2020).

On the path of diversification of the KSA and regional economies, there are a number of challenging areas to be addressed around policies, regulations, security, human skills, work environment, culture, and financing.

We recognize that Intelligent Connectivity is not only a technology topic. Therefore, we are embarking in an internal transformation across multiple initiatives to build the skills, work environment and capabilities to deliver on the promise of Intelligent Connectivity.

Among those, STC Academy and the transformation of our internal innovation engines are clear examples of our holistic approach to tackling the human element of Intelligent Connectivity

Yet, as an industry, in order to create and capture value from these enormous opportunities will require a holistic approach including focus on:

1-     Conducive government policy and regulations

2-     Innovation management through orchestration of eco-systems

3-     Ensure cyber security

4-     Talent development

5-     Funding availability

Nasser S. Al Nasser

STC Group CEO