These were held on 24 and 25 July 2019 at the Kempinski Hotel and Resorts in Beirut, Lebanon. The GSMA advance is a new programme aimed at advancing knowledge and capabilities of the professionals working in mobile network operators. The workshop was held on 24 July
and focused on:
1. IoT
2. 5G
3. Principles of Mobile Privacy and digital identity
There were 48 attendees from 4 countries and 5 operators present including:
1. Professionals in Lebanon’s mobile operators
2. Regional Operators
3. Government officials
Representation was from: Ogero, Alfa and Touch in Lebanon, two police generals from the Lebanese police, Orange (Jordan), STC (Saudi), Etisalat (UAE) and FTTH Council – MENA.
The key notes for the roundtable were delivered by HE Ghassan Hasbani (Deputy PM of Lebanon) and HE Adel Afyouni (Minister of Investment and Technology). There was also a presentation from Turkcell’s acting CMO on the operator’s digital transformation strategy in the massive Turkish market. The presentations by the GSMA were focused on: Regulatory Modernisation, Spectrum, 5G, Future Networks, Cross Border Data Flow, e SIM and GSMA’s regional and the global events calendar including MWC Barcelona, LA, Shanghai and Mobile 360 MENA in Dubai in November 2019.
There were 29 C-level attendees from 11 operators and 8 countries present with representation stemming from Turkcell (Turkey), STC and Mobily (Saudi), Orange (Jordan), Orange Group (Egypt), Ogero, Alfa and Touch (Lebanon), Omantel (Oman), Etisalat (UAE), and Paltel (Palestine).
“In healthcare, remote health monitoring and remote physicians working with new technologies are transforming rural healthcare. We have one of the largest human displacements per capita in history in Lebanon created by the Syrian refugee crisis; getting education to the masses is critical and the traditional school infrastructure is not available. We do not want a new generation growing without access to education; if we do not use digitization to bridge this education divide we have a major problem on our hands. Within the framework put together by the UN SDGs I have every confidence that telecoms will play a major transformational role.” His Excellency Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Ghassan Hasbani said.
He was also glad to know that the GSMA is working within framework of SDG.