With the technology community seeing a surge of new innovations this past week at Mobile World Congress 2014, Huawei—a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider—has surprised many industry enthusiasts and the wider public with a succession of new Middle East partnerships and product launches, aiming to make connecting without boundaries possible for more people around the world.
After two decades of consistent growth and advancing technologies, the ICT industry is now entering a new era of in-depth integration of the digital and physical worlds. Amidst these new opportunities, Huawei anticipates that mobile technologies in particular will play a more significant role in the socio-economic development of societies within the Middle East over the next three years.
“Information and communication technologies continue to drive a deeper convergence of the digital and physical worlds. It is no longer just a tool to improve efficiency, but an enabler and a catalyst for the transformation of all industries,” noted Mr. Ken Hu, Rotating CEO and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Huawei, during a keynote speech at the Huawei Broader Way Forum. “Sectors such as education, transportation and banking will be given new life, as the utilization of the Internet and ICT have become fundamental to the business mindset, requiring us to put customers at the center of all business elements and focus on customer experience in a way we never did before.”
More than 180 government officials, regulators and industry experts convened at the Broader Way Forum, themed “Enabling the Next Industry Revolution”, to discuss how to promote a more collaborative, cross-industry broadband ecosystem. To meet these needs, Huawei has pursued a global transformation strategy in recent years to become a full end-to-end ICT service provider—a core differentiator for its business globally and in the Middle East—counting amongst its customers telecom carriers, enterprises, and consumers
Deeping Middle East Telecom Partnerships
Underscoring its ambitions within the mobile broadband field, Huawei signed a string of agreements with leading Middle East operators during this year’s Congress.
This has included signing a new series of agreements that will see Etisalat Group and Huawei deepen their cooperation in pioneering 5G mobile broadband services, fiber broadband services, and delivering Huawei’s latest range of consumer devices to more customers across the MENA region.
A specific memorandum was also signed with Etisalat UAE to cooperate in mobile network modernization in the Northern Emirates and Dubai over the course of 2014. Etisalat Nigeria further unveiled plans for an outsourcing partnership with Huawei covering aspects of the company’s IT infrastructure—the first IT outsourcing program to be announced between the two companies in Africa.
STC has also announced the launch of an advanced 4th generation LTE-Advanced network in Saudi Arabia, supported by Huawei, with unprecedented download speeds making it the fastest commercial 4th generation networks in the Middle East.
In Kuwait, Huawei and VIVA announced plans to launch the first Joint Innovation Center in Kuwait dedicated to enhancing the user experience of VIVA’s mobile customers throughout the region.
Huawei also launched at MWC 2014 the world’s tiniest carrier-grade router—the Atom Router—which simplifies the operation and maintenance of telecom IP networks and provides operators greater visibility of network performance.
New Huawei Device Lineup
Elevating its consumer device lineup was another major focus for Huawei at this year’s Mobile World Congress. During the week, Huawei unveiled a range of new flagship 4G LTE-enabled devices including the world’s slimmest 7-inch phablet titled the Huawei MediaPad X1, a wearable ‘talk and track’ companion titled the Huawei TalkBand B1, a fresh 8-inch entertainment tablet dubbed the Huawei MediaPad M1, a new addition to its booming 4G smartphone lineup—the Huawei Ascend G6—as well as the world’s first LTE Cat6 Mobile WiFi device (Huawei E5786).
The 7-inch MediaPad X1 combines the functionality of a smartphone and tablet to provide an all-round mobile experience. It is capable of outstanding battery life with a 5000 mAh battery providing 21 days of standby time and more than five full days of continuous use. The compact MediaPad X1 is designed to unite the benefits of a smartphone with the popular large screens consumers favor today—an “all in one” device.
Huawei will also launch its first wearable device, an accessory of MediaPad X1 – Huawei B1. The B1 is a wristband that incorporates voice calling and big-data tracking capabilities. Huawei will also launch the Ascend G6, a colorful and effortlessly accessible 4G LTE smartphone, and the world’s fastest mobile hotspot, the Huawei E5786 that supports LTE Cat 6 connectivity.
Storage for the Enterprise
Designed to meet the exploding need for data storage to support business transformation, Huawei also unveiled its OceanStor 18000 Storage System—a high-end product series which provides trusted and flexible storage solutions for enterprises and telecom operators alike.
Huawei customers already include government, telecom, finance, energy, manufacturing, and transportation companies looking for a unified storage solution delivering unrivaled performance, availability, and capabilities in a cost-effective manner.
