Nokia Chief: Public Safety Broadband amongst trends that will drive change in the MEA region in 2016
Nokia's Head of Technology, Middle East and Africa at Nokia's Networks business, Aji Ed, says that Public Safety, IoT and Smat Cities are the top trends for 2016 in the Middel East and Africa Region.
In an interview with Developing Telecoms, Nokia's Head of Technology, Middle East and Africa at Nokia's Networks business, Aji Ed says that Public Safety Broadband is one of the that will drive change in the MEA region in 2016.
According to Ed, Operators have started realising the importance of Public Safety solution in MEA, and some leading operators and government agencies have already deployed the LTE for Public Safety system in the region. "LTE Public Safety solutions to combine traditional voice communication with video and data abilities so they can move from just reacting to intelligent prediction in any disaster will have a great impact in our area during 2016". Ed ays.
Smart City is another trend that is gaining momentum in MEA, and to develop full-fledged smart cities, operators are expected to deploy Public Safety system as an integral part of smart city approach.
Regarding the IoT, GSMA estimates that there will be nearly 20 billion M2M connections needed for IoT by 2020. Developments toward 5G commercialisation is basically paving the way for IoT.
Ed continues "We have carried out a Middle-East first 5G demo in Dubai, and will be carrying out more such tests in this year across the globe towards the commercialisation of 5G".