UAE telcos to gain up to $3bn from digitalisation by 2026, Ericsson says

5G technology will transform industries and create new revenue streams - study

The inside of an Ericsson AB 5G capable Massive MIMO antenna is displayed at the Sprint Corp. booth during the Mobile World Congress Americas event in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 14, 2018. The conference features prominent executives representing mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors and content owners from across the world. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Telecom operators in the UAE stand to gain an additional $3.3 billion (Dh12.1bn) in revenues by 2026, with manufacturing presenting the biggest opportunity, according to a report from Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson.

“Digital transformation is taking place in almost every industry, disrupting and creating new business models, and 5G is an enabler of this transformation,” said Rafiah Ibrahim, head of Ericsson Middle East and Africa on Tuesday.

Expanded mobile platforms developed by technology and telecom companies in the region are already enabling service providers to capture opportunities from digitalisation, “while addressing the explosive traffic growth expected in the 5G evolution”, he added.

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5G is the name used to describe the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications, which is poised to transform data capture, underpinning the Internet of Things - a catch-all term for products and services connected to the web to capture and share data - by connecting at a much faster rate.

The technology will enable digitalisation of 10 industries in particular - agriculture, manufacturing, energy and utilities, public safety, health care, public transport, media and entertainment, automotive, financial services and retail – Ericsson said in its "guide to capturing the 5G industry digitalisation business potential" study.

This will generate $619bn of revenues by 2026, led by the manufacturing sector which will account for $113bn of global revenues from digitalisation, and energy and utilities with $101bn.

In the UAE, industry growth potential is also driven by the digitalisation of manufacturing, which is expected to contribute 18 per cent of potential revenues by 2026. This is followed by energy and utilities with 16 per cent and public safety with 12.5 per cent, according to Ericsson.

UAE mobile operators will see the most revenue potential from real-time automation, which offers a potential $530 million of additional revenues by 2026 as automated services like mobile messaging and user data analytics is adopted at a rate of 133 per cent per year between 2020 and 2024 and will continue to rise steadily after that, the report said.

Other revenue potential will come from enhanced video services, bringing in $510m, and monitoring and tracking with $380m.