Walid Moneimne

'The mobile technology curve will be very interesting over the next two years,' says Dr. Walid Moneimne, Senior Vice-President for Europe, Middle East & Africa at Nokia Networks.

'It is not just a matter of 3G versus 2G. What we have is the introduction of much higher bandwidth for mobile phones with a lowest speed of 1.5MB per second up to 10MB per second. This means that everything will be better: voice optimization; Internet connections; data delivery; and streaming video.

'What we have coming is huge in terms of a much better user experience. It will make a real difference. Everything really is going mobile, and content producers should take note.'

At the same time Nokia predicts that the Middle East and Africa will be the fastest growing regions for mobile telephony. Over the next five years Nokia reckons there will be one billion more subscribers worldwide, and 20% of them or 200 million will be from these two regions. Why is that?

Info-density rates

'In some parts of Africa mobile penetration rates are still under 5%,' says Dr. Moneimne. 'It is not a question of competing with a fixed land line when there is no fixed line. Many countries in the Middle East also have penetration levels that are low compared with the growth of their GDPs.

'We know that info-density increases with GDP, and the rapid growth of economies in the Middle East thanks to the oil boom is clearly going to promote expansion.

'Meanwhile, Governments around the region are deregulating the telecoms sector and promoting competition. This is accelerating the pace of investment. And at Nokia we are working to keep the cost of entry and the total cost of owning a network down, which is further facilitating the expansion of networks.'

Not surprisingly in such a frenzied phase of expansion, Nokia finds that its biggest problem is recruiting the right staff for what is typically a very local business.

'We need the right skilled people and have to support our customers locally, and this is a challenge,' says Dr. Moneimne who has a long track record in the Gulf IT and telecoms sector.

Mobile network expansion

But this certainly looks like a unique time for mobile phone expansion in the region with new technology enhancing the top-market offering while at the same time new networks are constantly rolled out to serve both the top and entry level customer.

'We have a saying at Nokia that 'everything that can go mobile will go mobile!' And that is what we expect in this region too. The efficiency of the mobile phone is just such a strong force, it is unstoppable', concludes Nokia Networks regional boss.