1.
IP Gala,Cairo
Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act
www.balancingact-africa.com

2.
What consumers are looking to
do in the next five years?
 App store purchases will exceed US$122 bn in 2019 (source:
AppAnnie)
 Range of predictions that there will be increases in mobile
screen time, falls in watching traditional TV
 Video: Higher levels of content, UGC/social content and
more video advertising
 Mobile gaming revenues will be 60% of total gaming
revenues (source: AppAnnie)
 Live streaming of events
 Cloud apps, taking burden away from local device
 4G: 21%; 3G: 48% (Source: GSMA)

3.
5G Adoption

4.
What corporate customers are
looking to do in the next five
years?
 Wanting faster speeds and more reliability to run all
applications.
 Cloud computing – Distributed applications use and remote
working
 Using IoT for smart ecosystems – Checking the status of key
machinery, goods in transit, etc
 Video and teleconferencing technology – Better apps that will
reduce airline costs
 Network slicing – Possible for a business to practically own
their own 5G network to control smart ecosystems and
overall comms costs

5.
Industry transition from analog to digital -
where it has happened and where it will
happen next?
 Going IP in different parts of the network – International -> national –
local – consumer
 Long history of IP calling at international level (from peer-to-peer like
Skype or things like MPLS)
 Increasing use of IP over fibre at national and local levels
 4G implementation has ramped up fibre capacity implementation to
BTS level
 Consumer: India by end 2017, 218 million 4G handsets, of which 74%
are VoLTE enabled. Slower elsewhere…
 Virtualised services like subscriber data and billing
 BUT MNO networks are a patchwork of: different vendor equipment,
different analog and digital standards, etc
 Digital/Analog/digital paths slow potential speeds and increase
operating errors Cisco:” Multiplicity of protocols and states hinder
network economics” SRV6 promises ultra low latency
 Comcast using SRV6 for video transport
 All services using one protocol, multiple services on same network

6.
What does the network need to
be?
Faster – Every prediction - whether for
consumer or business – shows people
wanting better speeds.
More reliable - easier to spot and fix faults
Simpler – Less different standards, more
universal treatment of IP traffic flows
More secure for both corporate and
consumers

7.
The MENA Context - 5G take-up
and launches to 2025

8.
How fast in MENA?

9.
How fast by country launches?
* What will happen in Egypt?

10.
Strategic network choices:
standalone 5G vs Hybrid/NSA
networks
 Non-standalone (NSA) or hybrid networks depend upon
using 4G network capabilities for things like talking to cell
towers.
 MNOs have tended to consider NSA because of desire to
lower short-term risks and perceived costs of standalone
 Obviously full advantages of 5G are not available without
standalone. Latter will support future use cases of 5G but
NSA networks will not.
 Although the trend in adoption is towards NSA at the
moment, long-term everyone will need to go standalone later
on

11.
Clarifying 5G uses
 High speed broadband, including delivering to the local level
potentially cheaper than fibre. Speed gains likely to be
constrained by NSA networks. Broadband everywhere.
 5G technologies such as 5G New Radio (NR) — combined
with technologies such as cloud, software-defined networking
(SDN), and network slicing — will be key enablers for the
smart everything (eg factory, city health) of the future.
 Transport and automated vehicles: Not just self-driving cars
but a more connected transport ecosystem. 5G standard will
connect vehicles with surroundings, other drivers, and
infrastructure.
 IoT: Critical control of remote devices.

12.
Questions to answer before
making a business case
What are your assumptions about increased data
use over the next five years? How fast will it
increase?
Do you need additional revenues? Will the 5G
business case services be relevant to your local
circumstances?
If not now, when will you make the transition to
standalone networks?
How do your sunk costs compare to the
efficiencies that standalone might deliver?
If you decide to go NSA, how will you compete with
a standalone operator?