Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 34 | Page 59

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// at this year’s event: the launch of KT Corporation’s commercial 5G network. The country’s largest mobile operator will arrive to demonstrate the true power of its 5G business connectivity and strike new partnerships in the region. Zain Group, Kuwait Kuwait’s largest telecommunications company and a household name in eight different countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Zain Group is going live with its powerhouse collection of solutions at GITEX 2018. Whatever businesses need to move at 5G speeds and ride the IoT wave, Zain has it covered. and network connectivity, Smart City projects are setting out to overcome these issues and make cities cleaner, more efficient and better coordinated. Smart Cities offer many benefits to their populations such as helping them to find a parking space and smart waste management in the likes of Sharjah where sensors enable public bins to send alerts when they are full. As city populations become increasingly concerned about the side effects of pollution, air quality has become a political issue. Smart Cities offer an infrastructure which supports goals to reduce air pollution in numerous ways: from introducing buildings with smarter FEATURE: GITEX 2018 environmental management, to enabling drone deliveries which take cars and motorbikes off the road. Autonomous cars are expected to be a vital part of the future with Dubai’s Autonomous Transportation Strategy expected t o cut costs and produce substantial savings of up to US$245 million a year. However, the sheer volume of connected devices needed to create future Smart Cities would put unsurmountable pressure on networks available today. The only way to support the vision is to provide more bandwidth, faster speed and lower latency through 5G. Smart City innovations Cities are getting more crowded. Already, more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas and this number is expected to increase to two thirds by 2050. With pressure increasing on public services and infrastructure, cities have been looking for innovative, future-proofing solutions. Driven by rapid advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) technology, cloud computing www.intelligentcio.com FOR ONE WEEK THE DUBAI EVENT WILL SHOWCASE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATIONS THAT ARE TRANSFORMING SECTORS AND ENTIRE INDUSTRIES 365 DAYS A YEAR. INTELLIGENTCIO 59