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UAE telco du aims to cover 30% of populated areas with 5G this year

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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UAE telco du aims to cover 30% of populated areas with 5G this year
  • CTO says no change in Capex and have accelerated the rollout after easing of Covid-19-related restrictions.
  • CTO sees delay in Expo 2020 as an opportunity to enhance customer experience and to increase the footprint of 5G.
  • Telco sees more 5G use cases and more matured emerging technologies by second half of next year.

Dubai: UAE-based telecom operator du is aiming to cover 30 per cent of the populated areas of the Emirate with 5G network by the end of this year.

Saleem Alblooshi, Chief Technology Officer at Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, the parent company of du, said that there is no change in Capex and they have accelerated the rollout of 5G after easing of Covid-19-related restrictions.

“One of the challenges we faced during Covid-19 was it stopped the movement of our resources due to lockdown. Now, we are back to normal and hopes to have nationwide 5G coverage by 2024/2025 timeframe,” he said.

The telecom operator started preparing for the 5G in 2016 and successfully launched commercially in May 2019.

However, Alblooshi said that the availability of handsets and the ecosystem is gradually improving and more new 5G handsets are launching.

Furthermore, he said that the current 5G network play is mainly for high-speed mobile broadband, while the low-latency and massive-machine-type communications will be available later in 2021.

The current use cases for high-speed are gaming, streaming and fixed wireless access (FWA).

During the lockdown, Alblooshi said that remote healthcare, online learning and work-from-home initiatives benefitted from FWA as there was a sudden shift in traffic from the normal hotspots and business sectors to residential areas.

“With the non-standalone (NSA) rollout, we were able to scale our network and our application layer for streaming traffic,” he said.

Use cases still being worked out

NSA means beaming 5G over the existing 4G infrastructure while standalone (SA) means beaming 5G over the dedicated spectrum and infrastructure. Technically, he said that all the components for 5G are available but the business models are still being worked out.

“When 4G was launched, there was a requirement from the end-user for video applications. When a consumer moved from 3G to 4G, there was a total shift in experience. From 4G to 5G, we expect new use cases to be developed to use the 5G capabilities,” he said.

With the non-standalone (NSA) rollout of 5G, he said that only high-speed is available in the country and “we were able to scale our network and our application layer for streaming traffic such as Netflix and video communication tools.”

Because the network is NSA, the latency offered currently in the 5G space, even though better than 4G networks, still does not meet the low-Latency requirements expected by the 5G SA planned by end of 2021.

Industry experts said that the emergence of truly innovative enterprise 5G use cases and major improvements to the standalone 5G technology will happen with the availability of release 16 and 17 standards by 3GPP.

The 3GPP releases 16 and 17 of 5G New Radio include both extensions to existing features as well as features that address new verticals and deployment scenarios and they are expected in 2021.

 “Covid-19 and the lockdown have proven the capabilities and reliabilities of the telecom operators in enabling digital transformation and will change a lot of situations for operators as well as for the society. We [telecom operators] are at the core of digital transformation,” Alblooshi said.

He sees the delay in Expo 2020 as an opportunity for them to enhance customer experience and to increase the footprint of 5G.

“By the second half of 2021, we will have more 5G use cases and more emerging technologies will become more matured,” he said.

 With the telecom operators across the globe looking to open source technologies (Open RAN) in 5G to bring innovation and cut costs, du does not want to be left behind.

“We are doing pilots with Open RAN and working with the stakeholders. Virtualisation of the networks (edge and access) is part of our business and it is continuing. In 2021, we will have some O-RAN capabilities on the network,” he said. 

Regulatory framework and guidance is need of the hour for telehealth in UAE

TCN Bureau
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Regulatory framework and guidance is need of the hour for telehealth in UAE
  • .Covid-19 has acted as an accelerator and telehealth is now truly emerging and being adopted by leading healthcare providers in the UAE.
  • Benefits of telehealth such as convenience, safety and cost will continue to be recognised even after post pandemic.

Dubai: Telehealth in the UAE should be further supported by a robust regulatory framework and guidance akin to the traditional healthcare delivery model, industry experts said.

The successful utilisation of telehealth during the lockdown has provided an alternate medium of healthcare services delivery.

Covid-19 has acted as an accelerator where now telehealth, teleradiology and online pharmacy retail are now truly emerging and being adopted by leading healthcare providers in the UAE.

“Telehealth has been embraced during this crisis situation and it is a great tool to build the rapport between patients and healthcare professionals in various fields to ensure the right quality of services towards the patients,” Dr. Ibtesam Al Bastaki, Director of Health Investment and Partnership at Dubai Health Authority, said.

Shehzad Jamal, Partner, Head of Healthcare and Education at Knight Frank Middle East, said that it is important to take stock of the lessons learned from this pandemic, where it will be critical to revisit the current strategy of healthcare provision by both the public and private sectors to factor in operational readiness and allow temporary expansion of the workforce and infrastructure as and when required.

UAE’s healthcare sector, in bid to become a medical tourism destination, has undergone a considerable number of infrastructure and procedural changes in order to position itself as a leading healthcare provider and the UAE has been recognised as being one of the safest locations in the world in the fight against Covid-19.

Investors take a look at funding

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has also raised many questions as to the future structure of the healthcare sector both in the UAE and globally.

Jamal said that 2020 has brought with it an unprecedented challenge in the form of Covid-19, challenging global healthcare systems in terms of infrastructure, mode of delivery, financing and much more.

However, he said that it has also allowed countries across the globe to carefully examine the infrastructure gaps, consider alternative mediums such as telehealth, and has led to conventional investors to take a closer look at funding this sector.

Economic fallout

With the global economy stalling, he said that many firms have reacted by reducing headcount, furloughing staff, decreasing remuneration packages or a combination of the three.

In a few countries including the UAE, this reduction in employment will have a notable impact on their respective private healthcare sectors.

Given the scale of the economic fallout anticipated in the UAE, the total population is expected to decline for the first time in five decades by about 10 per cent this year. Initial forecasts indicate that employment will contract by 7.8 per cent in 2020 and is not expected to return to its 2019 level before 2022.

“As a result of this decline in population, we expect that there will be a proportional decline in patient volumes and have a trickle-down effect within the healthcare value chain. The lockdown and the ensuing breakdown of social norms has led to an increase in requirements and utilisation of certain healthcare services such as preventive care, home healthcare and psychological,” Jamal said.

With the wider acceptance of telehealth by insurance providers, Dr. Gireesh Kumar, Senior Manager for Healthcare and Education at Knight Frank Middle East, said that this service line is expected to experience greater demand going forward.

 “Telehealth is here to stay. We saw the take-up in the region during Covid-19. The benefits of telehealth such as convenience, safety and cost will continue to be recognised even after post pandemic,” Joe Hawayek, Senior Director at vHealth (MEA), said.

Although telehealth has its own set of limitations, he said that patients now have first-hand experience of the convenience it offers and it seems that it will be an important medium for delivering care if supported by adequate regulations.

Terminal Two is making coding education entertaining for kids

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Terminal Two is making coding education entertaining for kids
  • The US company is building confidence in kids at an early age through a collection of games.
  • Kids find themselves solving problems and tinkering with ideas central to computer science.

Dubai: The motto of US-based Terminal Two is to teach coding concepts through immersive and engaging online games.

Terminal Two is an initiative of Endless, an organisation that brings digital agency and access to kids around the world through Endless OS, games, investment, and philanthropy.

Alex Meyer, Technology Lead at Terminal Two, told Tech Channel News, that their games not only encourage kids to learn but also create and build for themselves.

“We have a collection of games and each game connects its mechanics to a programming concept. Kids will find themselves solving problems and tinkering with ideas central to computer science,” he said.

Games are designed by educators and professional game designers and include Frog Squash, Aqueducts, White House, The Passage, Ovum City, The Maze, The Bunker, Dragon’s Apprentice, to name a few.

However, early games start without formal coding, instead focusing on computational thinking, teaching ideas such as to how to use abstraction to focus on and solve problems.

Games advance to more challenging concepts and players have to see, modify and then write actual codes, he said and added that coding should be fun and can be a source of positive change or create new challenges.

Coding is universal language

“We teach players the foundation of programming and expose them to real Javascript programming syntax and to read, edit and debug real code to solve puzzles in-game,” Meyer said.

Coding is the future for the digital world; he said and added that every kid needs to be fluent in the language of coding in evolving the next generation of technology development.

“Creating opportunities at an early age to learn digital skills along with other subjects are important in a bid to shape them prepare for a bright future. Coding skills open up professional opportunities in a wide range of growing industries,” he said.

Terminal Two had worked with six studios to develop games but now, they collaboratively work with four third-party studios, two of them are in Egypt – Rubikal and 2024.

“Large part of our focus is to make good games. For kids, it is like playing a game but it gives them knowledge. Kids like to play games and parents like it because it teaches kids computer science,” Meyer said.

The games are available on PC, Mac, Apple iPad and iPhones, and as a web game.

Virtualised and open networks to give “new face to telecom industry in seven years”

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Virtualised and open networks to give “new face to telecom industry in seven years”
  • What happened in the IT world is happening in the telecom world right now, but mostly in a private cloud model.
  • Rakuten is holding talks with telcos and governments in a bid to take its innovative platform to rest of the world.

Dubai: The telecom industry will look totally different in the next five to seven years with the advent of virtualised and open networks, Rakuten Mobile’s global head of sales said.

Rakuten Mobile, the mobile network subsidiary of Rakuten Group, is the youngest and fourth mobile operator in Japan, with others being NTT Docomo, SoftBank and KDDI.

Rabih Dabboussi, Senior Vice-President for Global Sales and Marketing at Rakuten Mobile, speaking in an exclusive to TechChannel News said that their network is unique and they are the only operator in the world that is 100% cloud-native and fully virtualised, which means that they don’t use any proprietary or legacy infrastructure.

“It is all futureproof and modern network infrastructure based on virtualised functions. The outcome of that is the huge reduction in cost (Capex and Opex) and lot more flexibility and agility in deploying 5G networks, incremental revenue streams and the ability to provide highly secure and “clean” network,” he said.

“If we succeed in our mission, in five to seven years from now, the telecom industry is going to look significantly different and those who adopt these new virtualised, containerised and open network infrastructures will thrive.”

Dabboussi spent over two decades at Cisco helping mobile operators around the world deploy 2.5G, 3G and 4G networks. He was also the Managing Director and General Manager for Cisco UAE and helped establish UAE startup businesses in the secure communications and cybersecurity space.

He joined Rakuten in May this year.

No more monopoly

“We have many options in the IT world offered from the cloud such as software-defined networking other IT systems. This trend is taking place in the telco world right now, but mostly in a private cloud model. In the past, some IT system vendors had a monopoly on the market, we see many more options available from startups from around the world offering IT solutions in the cloud,” Dabboussi said.

Taking full advantage of cloud and virtualisation techniques did not happen before in the telecom world, he said due to its complexity and the technologies being quite different and there will always be someone who needs to take the risk first and “we did that. This trend is going to accelerate in the years to come.”

Rakuten has launched full-scale commercial services on its fully virtualised 4G LTE network in Japan in April and Dabboussi said that 5G will be launched in October, with the convergence of 4G/5G core in 2021.

“We are holding talks with many telcos around the world. My aim is to take the platform that we built in Japan and offer it to the telcos and governments outside of Japan. I am building a global go-to-market team now to take our innovative platform to the rest of the world,” Dabboussi said.

Rakuten Mobile has established its international headquarters in Singapore and has plans to expand to the Americas soon.

“I am going to take it step by step and select the right operator with the right vision for our first few deployments,” Dabboussi said.

“We have also been recognised by the US Department of State as a ‘Clean Carrier’ as we only use trusted technologies in our platform from radio access networks through our datacentres and core. There are a lot of discussions around the trust of certain equipment vendors and the cost associated with rolling out 5G networks,” he said. 

This seems to be an opportune time for Rakuten to accelerate the adoption of its platform as telcos around the world consider “clean” network vendors.

Certified clean telcos

The Clean Network program describes itself as the Trump Administration’s comprehensive approach to safeguarding the nation’s assets including citizens’ privacy and companies’ most sensitive information from aggressive intrusions by malign actors.

Under the Clean Network program are the Clean Carrier, Clean Store, Clean Apps, Clean Cloud, Clean Cable and Clean Path.

Some of the largest telecom companies around the globe are also becoming “Clean Telcos.”

The US Department of State on its website has listed Orange in France, Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT, SoftBank, Rakuten and KDDI in Japan, and O2 in the United Kingdom are refusing to do business with certain telecom vendors.

There are speculations in the market that the Trump administration may ditch Ericsson and Nokia and may join hands with Japan to find a 5G alternative to the Chinese major.

Paytm Mall data breached. Are Indian firms easy targets?

TCN Bureau
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Paytm Mall data breached. Are Indian firms easy targets?
  • The hacker group John Wick is involved in several attacks on mostly Indian firms such as Zee5, SquareYards, Stashfin, Sumo Payroll, Square Capital, i2ifunding, e27 and many others.
  • Interest in Indian companies due to the high degree of his success rate in receiving ransom payments.

Bengaluru: Hackers have breached into Paytm Mall, the e-commerce division of Paytm, a report by Atlanta based cyber-security firm Cyble said.

“Massive data breach,” is how the security firm is describing the attack, although Indian media is reporting that Paytm has denied the attacks ever took place.

According to Cyble, he hacker group, identified as ‘John Wick’ has demanded Paytm which is valued at around $3 billion, to pay a ransom of 10 ETH, equivalent to $4,000 and says it has information that confirms Paytm is interested to pay up.

The information about the hack was passed on by a former insider of John Wick who claimed that the entire database of Paytm Mall has been compromised as the hacker group gained access to their production database and potentially affects all accounts and related information at Paytm Mall.

Cyble also posted a screenshot of what the hacker has posted on a Russian forum.

“The actor has other aliases such as “South Korea”, “HCKINDIA”. One of the tactics used by this group is “to act” as a grey-hat hacker and offer help to companies or victims to fix their bugs,” said the report adding that the group has been involved in several attacks on mostly Indian firms such as Zee5, SquareYards, Stashfin, Sumo Payroll, Square Capital, i2ifunding, e27 and many others.

Cyble also notes that the hacker group has a keen interest in Indian companies mainly due to “the high degree of his success rate in receiving ransom payments.”

A recent report by another cyber security firm Sophos based on a survey it commissioned  has indicated India tops the table of ransomware victims with a full two-thirds (67%) of respondents hit by ransomware in the previous year and India had the highest level of infection, followed by Mexico, US, and Canada. Reports also indicate that Indian firms have incurred costs of close to $1 million to rectify the impact of each ransomware attack.

India also recently announced a policy to ramp up its cyber security in the wake of a perception of increased threat from both external state and non-state actors in recent months.

Equinix acquires India’s GPX Global for $161m to support expansion

TCN Bureau
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Equinix acquires India’s GPX Global for $161m to support expansion
  • Equinix aims to acquire GPX India’s business consisting of a fibre-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centres, adding more than 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets at full buildout.

Dubai:  Equinix, the global interconnection and data centre company, has acquired the operations of GPX Global Systems in India for an all-cash transaction of $161 million to support expansion.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approval.

Under the agreement, Equinix intends to acquire GPX India’s business consisting of a fibre-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centres, adding more than 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets at full buildout.

The facilities will add more than 90,000 square feet of colocation space to Platform Equinix when fully built.

GPX India facilities also host key internet exchanges such as Mumbai IX-DECIX, AMS-IX India, Extreme IX and Bharat IX, allowing ISPs, carriers, CDNs and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic.

Equinix customers will have access to a network-dense data center campus with more than 200 international brands and local companies, including the world’s leading cloud service providers (CSPs), leading networks, content delivery network (CDN) providers, all local carriers, 130 internet service providers (ISPs) and four internet exchanges.

 Both data centers are strategically located in Mumbai, home to the critical IT infrastructure of numerous global organisations and with international connectivity serviced by subsea cables at landing sites located nearby.

According to McKinsey, core digital sectors in India, such as IT and digital communication services are projected to double in size by 2025 to contribute $355-$435 billion to GDP.

Globally, Equinix comprises more than 210 data centres across 56 metros and 26 countries.

John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst and Research Director, Synergy Research Group, said that  the data centre market in India is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2020 and grow at 12 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019-2024, the third highest rate in the world.

The research shows that the country will become the seventh largest data center market in the world in 2021.

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