A roundtable of Arab telecom industry leaders was held by the Al Arab television channel in Dubai on December 15th. Investment news site Nuqudy.com reported that top regional executives were unanimous about coming growth and convergence in the Middle East IT and telecommunications fields, but divergent on the level of risk involved.

Osman Sultan, CEO of Emirates mobile phone company “du”, said the future was bright, but called for government support for increased IT growth. While noting the rapid spread of telecom devices in the Arab world, Sultan also estimated that the Arab world is at present still outside the orbit of the digital world, and that much remains to be done.

Ghassan Hasbani, head of international operations at STC, said that the telecom sector is witnessing an on-going shift, and agreed on the need for government support in order to stimulate investment in the sector, and for governmental commitment to ensuring fair competition in order to attract investments in infrastructure. Hasbani also confirmed that telecommunications companies in the region have grown beyond its borders, and noted that STC earns about thirty percent of its revenues from foreign units.

Dr Paul Doany, CEO of Oger Telecom, raised the issue of competition faced by the telecommunications companies in the form of internet players such as Google, Facebook and Apple, who provide voice services in advance and pay TV. He noted that these providers are making use of the infrastructure laid down by the telecommunications companies in order to provide the competing services, yet do not share with the telecommunications companies any of their profits.

Jawad Abbasi, Director General and founder of the \"Arab Advisors Group\", predicted that the coming years would see in the Arab region a focus on services, high speed internet, and the scramble for the introduction of fourth generation mobile phone services, while countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, will focus on the extension of international high-speed fiber links which will allow more integration of entertainment and communications.

Abbasi also warned of a growing gap between the Arab states that continually invest in ongoing infrastructure in telecommunications networks and between those experiencing economic restrictions on their infrastructure investment capability.