Capacity Middle East is approaching; mark your calendars for March 6-8, 2018. If you're headed to Dubai, keep an eye out for our own Erik Kreifeldt and Kate Reilly.
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Erik will be moderating the panel "Breaking New Ground: Innovative Opportunities on Offer as the Carrier Market Enters the Digital Age." As he prepares for the main event, Erik kindly gave us a preview of what he expects to cover during this conversation and across the two-day conference.
The competitive landscape of the carrier market in the Middle East is a big part of the panel you'll be moderating in Dubai. Could you tell us a little bit more about this environment?
The Middle East hosts an interesting part of the global network. Lots of international cables traverse the region, carrying traffic between Europe and Asia, as well as eastern Africa. Some of the regional operators take part in the wholesale business accordingly.
Both global and regional operators want to access emerging markets from the region. But more barriers to interconnectivity remain in the region than in more competitive markets.
Both global and regional operators want to access emerging markets from the region. But more barriers to interconnectivity remain in the region than in more competitive markets.
It sounds like the technologies of tomorrow (IoT, VR, etc.) are going to be of interest. Any idea how that will factor into your discussion?
Wholesale carriers are keen to plan their investments and find growth opportunities. Accordingly, they assess the take-up of new applications and their impact on the network. Applications don’t impact the network the same way—even some bandwidth-intensive new applications may drive proportionally less growth in the core network than the edge, for instance. But retail applications ultimately drive wholesale transactions.
What sort of questions are you expecting from conference-goers this year?
People always ask about the content companies, how are they progressing in expanding their presence in the region, and whether new ones are emerging.
People always ask about the content companies, how are they progressing in expanding their presence in the region, and whether new ones are emerging. They’ll want to know how business is faring on SE-ME-WE-5 and AAE-1 and prospects for new cable systems, including terrestrial routes to Europe. We’ll assess how much traffic is being exchanged locally instead of Europe.
Erik Kreifeldt
Principal Analyst Erik Kreifeldt tracks the international network services industry, advising global operators on market trends. With more than 20 years of industry experience—including over a decade of research with TeleGeography—he specializes in strategic decisions that require genuine data, analysis, and insight. Before joining TeleGeography, Erik was an optical networking industry analyst, trade reporter, and optical physics science writer. He continues to draw inspiration from the profound-yet-underappreciated work of maintaining infrastructure essential for global commerce—and awe at how it all gets done.
Kate Reilly
Kate Reilly is a Senior Analyst at TeleGeography. As part of the pricing team, Kate contributes analysis to both enterprise and wholesale products.