The role of 5G in creating regional remote work ecosystems

With the UAE government announcing remote working for their employees, and several organisations in the country following suit, there has never been a time with this much emphasis on smart working.

Even before this way of working was the centre of discourse, many people – more than two thirds of the world’s population – worked remotely at least once a week and the “online teams” increasingly replaced the traditional office workforce.

Flexible working, in fact, is an advantage for companies: in addition to reducing overall costs, it increases people’s motivation, making them more responsible for their time and way of working, and contributes to their work-life balance.

Progress such as 5G, collaboration apps and conference software offer more efficient ways to work together, adapting to what users – but also companies – want so that working remotely with a colleague in another country or attending a brainstorming meeting with 50 people around the world becomes the new norm.

The availability of broadband connectivity, easy access to email servers and collaboration software are key elements to ensure the efficiency of smart workers and a fluid user experience that is comparable to that experienced in everyday life. Thanks to this progress, 5G will play an increasingly central role in the development of agile work, as there will no longer be any difference between being networked within the company or working on the move.

But on what terms? We believe that the change will be about approaching the possibilities of maximising 5G’s new potential.

5G is central to the UAE government agenda, with the UAE being the first country in the Arab region and fourth country globally to deploy end-to-end standalone 5G technology. In line with the UAE Vision 2021, the TRA in the UAE has also established committees to synergise the process, and Abu Dhabi airport became the first international terminal to be powered with indoor ultra-high speed 5G connectivity.

Having one of the most advanced telecom markets in the region allows the country to leverage emerging technologies with the implementation of AI, Smart City solutions and IoT (Internet of Things).

One novelty of 5G will be the ability to segment 5G bandwidth to reserve specific portions of the network for specific business applications or users, creating an end-to-end experience through advanced tools such as cloud orchestration.

However, the most important novelty will be to propose an edge computing model in order to implement real-time, data-intensive applications in the 5G network close to the user. With 5G increasing speeds and edge computing reducing latency, we can expect to see a transformation in service delivery and customised user experience.

These advancements will no doubt enhance the applications and operations we will soon see around IoT, automation and AI based technologies within the country’s public and private sectors.

Walid Yehia is the senior director for sales, Middle East, Russia, Africa, Turkey (MERAT) at Dell Technologies