The arrival of industry 4.0 is going to ignite an exceptional wave of innovation in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). This industry combines operational, information and communication technologies with cyber-physical systems, facilitated by advanced wireless communication and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) services. This digital and wireless revolution will be powered by 5G networks, which have the probabilities to impel economic growth in the region like no previous generation of mobile technology.

For example, in the Middle East and Africa, the security, high speeds, low latency and a massive number of connections in 5G networks will prop up the smart city and agriculture alteration in many countries. Thus, new revenue streams will be come out from IoT and industrial applications, and speed up digitalization.

Agriculture 4.0 will mainly renovate both the demand side and the value chain/supply side of the food-scarcity equation, and take the help of technology to deal with the real needs of consumers.

The UAE already has started using the SCADA system, which unites current, real-time data from weather stations with data from soil moisture and salinity sensors. Besides this, IKEA, David Chang and the ruler of Dubai have spent $40 million in vertical farming. Similarly, other Arab countries are also giving stress to expand their agriculture highly, and performing experiments with various new technologies.

The Middle East and Africa region is also the world’s largest hub for mineral mining (diamond, phosphate, gold) and for oil and gas excavations. 5G is the best domain choice of IoT connectivity for these industries.

Use of 5G in the Middle East

In 2019, Ericsson will start the commercial use of 5G with operators in highly developed markets like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, and this will get important traffic volumes by 2021. Ericsson was just selected by Batelco to install 5G commercially across Bahrain, and we announced 5G commercial launches with Etisalat, STC, and Ooredoo at Mobile World Congress 2019. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report MEA, all major service providers in the region are moving positively to launch 5G commercially. Several regional start-ups including Fetchr, Souq, Careem, and ReserveOut have been working successfully, and some others have had a strong impact on the market.

Increased network capacity, lower cost per gigabyte and new use case requirements are the main drivers for immediate 5G deployment. The bulk of the 5G subscriptions in the MEA are likely to come from highly developed ICT markets like Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, but in Africa, significant momentum is taking the shape in South Africa.

The MEA region’s telecom market is considered by increasing uptake of LTE. The region will be the leader in the globe with an estimation of 9x mobile data traffic growth (1.8 to 17 EB/month from 2018 to 2024) and see a doubling of mobile broadband subscriptions (850 to 1,630 million from 2018 to 2024), according to Ericsson Mobility Report MEA.

The exponential role of troublesome technology in climate action

Besides recovering efficiency and reducing cost, digitalization and IoT have wide human inferences. Today, nobody can underestimate the advantages of IoT. It is helping us in getting smart homes, power grids, connected transport systems and many more; as a result, our personal lives becoming safer, healthier and greener.

Combination of ICT with a well-integrated corporate sustainability strategy can help undertake a variety of global challenges. When the digital sector is trying to reduce its own productions, representing just 1.4% of the global total, it is still in a distinctive position to persuade other sectors.

Social and technological innovations are already showing their dimensions. For example, shared and “on-demand” transportations of more energy-saving electric vehicles could lessen the global energy requirement for transport by more than 50% by 2050, with decreasing the number of vehicles on the road.

Similarly, adoption of circular-economy approaches has the possibilities to reduce global emissions from industry by 45% by 2050. Heavy industries like steel, aluminum, cement, and plastic production can reduce emissions by 50% in all over the world by using current technologies and efficiencies.

5G is the stamina which can craft it all work, not only in the Middle East and Africa but also all over the world, driving economic value from improved mobile broadband to digital industry to survive climate change. In sequence, that will need an environment of technology, regulation, security and industry partners to convey on the potential.