The World Broadband Association (WBBA) Participates in the SAMENA Leaders’ Summit to Expand Its Ecosystem and Enhance Global Influence
On May 13, the SAMENA (South Asia, Middle East, North Africa) Leaders’ Summit was successfully held in Dubai, UAE. The summit, themed "Smartly Drawing the Future: Intelligence and Sustainable Development of Infrastructure," brought together over 20 regulatory agencies, more than 30 operators, and over 300 industry leaders to discuss leading 5G-A development and digital transformation, and to collaboratively move towards a more prosperous smart world.
Martin Creaner, Secretary General of the WBBA, and Liu Zhiyong, Rotating Chair of the Oversight Committee, were invited to attend and deliver keynote speeches.
Martin Creaner’s keynote, titled "Empowering the Next Generation of Global Cloud and Broadband Industry," aimed to lead future digital broadband technology innovation and development. He pointed out that countries worldwide recognize the importance of accelerating the construction and upgrade of broadband networks, continuously expanding broadband strategic layouts. For instance, Saudi Arabia released a white paper on the Gigabit Society, planning to achieve seamless end-to-end 10Gbps connections nationwide in the future, with an FTTH (Fiber to the Home) coverage rate exceeding 95% and an FTTR (Fiber to the Room) coverage rate exceeding 20%. Additionally, Saudi Arabia plans to upgrade Wi-Fi 5/6 to Wi-Fi 7 and enhance IPv4 to IPv6 protocol support.
Martin Creaner called upon stakeholders in the cloud and broadband industry to set common goals and maintain close collaboration, working together to bridge the global digital divide and promote the prosperous development of the digital world.
Liu Zhiyong, delivered a keynote speech titled "Accelerating 5G-A Development to Empower the Digital New Era," introducing China Telecom's practices and thoughts on promoting the construction of new cloud-network integrated information infrastructure and high-quality 5G-A development. He explained that China Telecom actively promotes the construction of new cloud-network integrated information infrastructure, building a network with intelligent agility and ubiquitous diversified computing power cloud-network resource endowments. He noted that the future world will comprise smart education, smart entertainment, smart healthcare, smart cities, and smart manufacturing, requiring the promotion of more advanced network infrastructure innovation and construction to accelerate the digital transformation of the economy and society, laying the foundation for a future intelligent world.
During the summit, Liu Zhiyong met with UAE operators DU and Etisalat, and Saudi operators Mobily and Salam, introducing the development and vision of the WBBA. He sincerely invited all parties to join the WBBA, deepen cooperation, seize the opportunities of the digital era, and promote the sustained prosperity and development of the global cloud and broadband industry.