The Middle Eastern telecoms market is emerging as a hotbed of ambition and innovation at a time when many established service providers in Western markets are falling back on a more conservative approach. Gulf telecoms service providers are developing momentum in the enterprise sector and the potential to expand, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Ismail Patel, Analyst for Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData said, “Middle Eastern governments have invested heavily in digital technologies as they seek to fulfil their national visions of digitization and diversify their economies from reliance on fossil fuels to services. This has enabled telecoms service providers in the region such as Etisalat in the Emirates, Ooredoo based in Qatar and stc of Saudi Arabia to gain valuable experience in developing use cases for technologies such as 5G, IoT and smart cities.”

Though enterprise solution providers in the Middle East need to broaden and refine their portfolios to compete against more established multi-national telecoms companies in both the Western Hemisphere and the Asia Pacific region, evidence suggests they have increasing momentum in the enterprise sector and the financial backing to continue to invest and expand. All three companies have reported growing interest and revenue market share in the enterprise services and this has been turbocharged by the pandemic as businesses are looking to shift to the cloud, remote working and a raft of other enterprise solutions.

Etisalat is making progress in 5G enterprise, cloud and unified communications services, as well as sector-specific solutions as it seeks to leverage the UAE’s status as a hub for international business to launch services beyond its footprint. The company is already entrenching itself as an enterprise services provider across the UAE, Saudi Arabia through its subsidiary Mobily and Etisalat Egypt.

Ooredoo has had major international operations for quite some time now as it sought to invest in larger markets beyond Qatar. The company is looking to digitize its operations and adopt an asset-light approach to delivery, increasing its focus on innovative customer propositions.

stc is also looking to leverage both its strong national heritage and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030 to become a regional business hub akin to the Emirates and transform into a services-driven economy. Much of this will rely on the enterprise technologies it is investing in, such as 5G, IoT and cloud.

Rob Pritchard, Senior Analyst for Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, said, “Over the last couple of years, we have seen global service providers such as BT, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Vodafone scale back their ambitions in expanding enterprise services beyond their core markets. At the same time, providers in the Middle East such as Etisalat, Ooredoo and stc are seeking to increase their presence outside their home markets in order to boost organic revenue growth and increase their partnership ecosystem.”

GlobalData believes service providers in the Middle East have the advantage of learning from other operators’ experience as they face the gauntlet of deregulation. The obvious strategy for them is to expand internationally and to exploit new product opportunities at home and form partnerships with partners in cloud, collaboration and security. Culturally, they need to escape the incumbent mindset which comes with decades of dominance. Competitive telecoms markets are tough – and these operators will face others trying to take market share from them – but with the right focus and a clear enterprise customer strategy, these service providers have the strength, depth and resources to thrive.