Telco experts from GSMA, SAMENA, e& UAE, du, Omantel, Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, and Tozed Kangwei say regulatory clarity, technology readiness, service innovation, and ecosystem balance—underpinned by 10GIGA—will shape the path to 6G.
Telecom leaders in the GCC emphasized collaboration as the key driver of the 5G-Advanced era at the 19th Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit, held in Dubai from 10–11 December 2025.
At the center of the discussion was the high-level panel “10GIGA GCC with 5G-A: The Journey Starts Now”, bringing together senior representatives from GSMA, SAMENA Telecommunications Council, e& UAE, du, Omantel, Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, and Tozed Kangwei Tech, in a shared commitment to coordinated deployment and ecosystem-led innovation.
The 10GIGA GCC with 5G-A session explored how synchronized action, including advanced spectrum policy, regulatory agility, device readiness, AI-native radios, and experience-based business models, is accelerating the region’s transition toward 10-gigabit networks and future 6G pathways.
Setting the global context, Izhar Ahmad, Director of Industry Affairs & Communication, SAMENA Telecommunications Council, described the transformative potential of the upper 6 GHz spectrum as a critical enabler for digital inclusion, innovation, and AI-driven services.
He cited the UAE as a standout example of translating WRC-23 into clear national roadmaps, early 5G-A launches, and tangible fixed wireless access growth. Dr. Nadia Brahmi, Technology Director at GSMA, positioned 5G-A as the natural bridge toward 6G, highlighting three practices emerging from the GCC experience: early spectrum allocation decisions, regulator-operator pilots to validate real-world performance, and broad ecosystem collaboration spanning governments, regulators, operators, vendors, and academia.
Representing the devices’ ecosystems, Kewen Wang, DGM for Global Marketing and Business Development and Director of the Middle East region at Tozed Kangwei Tech Co. Ltd., emphasized the role of upper 6-GHz capable devices in unlocking 5G-A performance. As a Huawei ecosystem partner, Tozed has already completed early pilots in the UAE and Oman, with further trials planned across Europe and Asia, supporting uplink speeds approaching 1.8 Gbps and multi-gigabit downlink performance.
From the operator side, Bushra Alyas, Senior Manager, Mobile Access Network at e&, framed the 6 GHz opportunity as a premium mid-band asset offering the optimal balance between coverage and capacity, stressing the importance of clear spectrum strategy and ecosystem alignment.
Ahmed AlShal, Director of Access Network Deployment & Solutions Design at du, positioned the upper 6 GHz band as a complementary capacity layer anchored by C-band for wide-area performance and reinforced by low-band spectrum for deep indoor coverage.
Dr. Ali Said Shinoon Al Hashmi, General Manager Networks at Omantel, shared how rapid adoption of 5G-based fixed wireless access adoption drove traffic beyond forecasts, reinforcing the need to move from best-effort connectivity to SLA-backed, guaranteed services, a shift enabled by upper 6 GHz and 5G-Advanced capabilities.
From the technology provider perspective, Drazen Colnar, Senior ICT Solution Architect at Huawei Middle East and Central Asia, explained how advances in radio design, particularly extremely large antenna arrays exceeding 1,500 elements, allowed upper 6 GHz to achieve propagation characteristics comparable to 3.5 GHz C-band. Adopting this tech, operators can reuse existing towers, power, and transport infrastructure, and accelerate rollout while keep total cost of ownership under control.
Zoran Lazarevic, CTO at Ericsson Middle East and Africa, positioned upper 6 GHz as the “centimeter-wave bridge” between 5G and 6G, noting that what 3.5 GHz represents for 5G today, upper 6 GHz will represent for future generations. He stressed that experience-centric services such as guaranteed low-latency gaming, industrial automation, and XR are only possible when large contiguous bandwidth is paired with mid-band coverage characteristics.
Mohamed Samir, VP Middle East, Mobile Networks at Nokia, highlighted how AI-native network design is rapidly multiplying traffic demand, not incrementally but exponentially. AI integration at the radio level, he added, is key to extracting maximum value from the spectrum and supporting personalized, guaranteed experiences at scale.
This collective commitment was formally marked during the 10GIGA GCC launch ceremony, signaling the start of a new deployment phase, and a fundamental shift toward experience-driven, ultra-wideband 5G-A connectivity across the region.
