How does the Fibre Connect Council see the future and growth of fibre in the region?
As the demand for data is exponentially growing, the importance of fibre is also increasing. Its positive outcomes are centred on the improvement of services, connectivity and living conditions, in addition to providing more access to information for more people and businesses. Its ultimate advantage is its ability to transfer vast amounts of data at the local and global levels.
It can transform multiple industries including education, banking, healthcare and government among others. Fibre deployment ambitions are seeing the light today in the MENA region as more telecommunications companies invest in fibre technologies.
What would having a fibre-connected MENA mean?
Having a fibre-connected MENA is a huge advantage for our region. It can provide a speedy, reliable, and efficient connection between different countries in the MENA region resulting in higher speed communication and enhanced experiences for customers.
It can improve educational sessions, medical consultations, or even business requirements. The Fibre Connect Council with all its expertise and capabilities will contribute to such a direction and play a significant role in delivering state-of-the-art services.
All communication technology models from mobile networks, fixed networks, PON networks and WAN are part of the fibre-optics transformation taking place, each type of these networks has its development path not affecting or intersecting with one another.
An adequate example would be the evolution of 5G. Fibre optics will play an important role in mobile backhauling, triple play, and the recently offered quadruple play by service providers in green and environmentally friendly real estate projects, commercial buildings, smart cities, etc. They all rely on an optical fibre infrastructure with GPON or 10GPON technologies which they are developing every day.
What are the main challenges to getting fibre across the entire MENA? How do we overcome them?
The main challenges include varying telecom regulations across the region, difficulties in reaching rural areas and funding for optical fibre manufacturing projects. Aligning with the vision and direction of the council, we identified several initiatives for the coming years such as:
- Create and maintain an open and direct channel of communication with telecom regulatory authorities across the region in order to come up with clear guidelines to regulate the deployment of optical fibre networks adopting world-class standards and best practices published by the FCC. We need to ensure operators, contractors, and system integrators will strictly follow these guidelines. This includes but is not limited to design optimisation and scalability, material quality (cables and accessories), installer capabilities, and certifications.
- Encourage the deployment of optical fibre in rural areas that forms a substantial proportion of our land area with a high population. Imagine the positive impact it will have on people being able to save their time, instead of travelling between cities to finish paperwork or issue permits and licenses, they can easily do so online. Fortunately, Egypt has started to provide the required fibre infrastructure through the presidential initiative Hayah Karima “decent life” that aims to improve the quality of life in the less privileged rural communities within the framework of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030. I believe many other governments in the region will follow in the same footsteps and launch similar initiatives.
- Encourage investments in optical fibre manufacturing throughout the region to fulfil the growing demand. This can be initiated through FCC conferences and events facilitating and enabling the communication and collaboration between regional investors, world-leading fibre manufacturers, domestic manufacturers, and industry-related companies. This approach is significant and will effectively support meeting the market demand.
What should people know about fibre optics?
Fibre optics are an upgrade that has made a spectacular difference in our lives. Optical fibre has unique characteristics and cutting-edge features that make it the backbone and foundation of modern ICT infrastructure. Fibre cores ensure ultra-high speed and high safety levels with higher reliability and durability while maintaining a lighter weight and smaller size.
Fibre optics enable the digital transformation in the region which is rapidly growing with the majority of the governments embracing them because of its impeccable impact on economic growth and social aspects such as governmental documentation procedures, citizens’ databases, education, health care and other range of services affecting people daily lives.
What is Benya doing in this space and how is Fibre Mena Connect helping drive your business forward?
Over the last few years, Benya Group has achieved exceptional milestones in the field of optical fibre expansion in Egypt, all of which have fortified our expertise, and aided in establishing a conceptual framework to achieve tremendous success across the region.
In 2020, Benya Cables a subsidiary of Benya Group signed an agreement with the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation (AOI) to establish the largest factory for fibre-optic cables in the Middle East & Africa with investments exceeding 1 billion Egyptian Pounds. The Optical Fibre supplier is Corning, the world’s leading innovator and manufacturer of optical fibre, cables, and connectivity solutions, it is located in a strategic location at Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), to fulfil the market needs in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa.
Benya Cables will produce high quality fibre optic cables that will play a pivotal role in the digital transformation projects underway in Egypt and the region, such as new smart cities, telecommunications infrastructure, and smart applications.
In alignment with the government’s vision to transform Egypt into a regional hub for telecommunication infrastructure, Benya Cables aims to leverage its strategic geographical location within Egypt as it’s a gateway to the Middle Eastern and African markets focusing on the expansion of the state of the art innovative solutions in various sectors. Some of our solutions are, airports and railway systems, hotels, resorts, shopping malls, multi-purpose residential and commercial facilities, convention and exhibition centres, stadiums, healthcare, financial and banking centres, parking systems, and transportation.
