Etisalat Group, a leading telecoms and ICT solutions provider in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and Huawei, a leading global ICT solutions provider, are set to open a new Joint Innovation Lab specialising in 5G and Internet of Things (IoT).

It will work towards improving people’s lives and enabling more communities in the Middle East to benefit from technological process, said a statement.

The plans unveiled this week during the annual Etisalat-Huawei Summit 2015 held in Abu Dhabi under the theme of ‘Aspire Forward, Win the Future Together.’

The strategic summit was led by Ahmad Julfar, Etisalat Group chief executive officer, and Sun Yafang, chairwoman of the board of Huawei, with a number of senior business heads in attendance.

The lab will follow a series of recent memorandum of understandings signed between Etisalat Group and Huawei to bring technology firsts to the region.

Its mandate will be to explore and deploy super-speed 5G mobile broadband services in the region, as well as create a joint research and development framework to investigate how IoT applications can be adopted in various industries to enhance business efficiency and lead to smarter public services.

During the summit, the two companies also reviewed their long-term outlook for the ICT sector, as well as their priorities leading up to the year 2020.

Among the focus themes for this year’s summit were strategic alignments on: ‘Digital Services’ including video and IoT applications; ‘Agile Operations’ to improve the user experience and digitise business operations; and a ‘Network 2020’ vision that covers the development of 5G mobile broadband, software-defined networking (SDN), and network-function virtualisation (NFV) technologies.

“Etisalat is committed to harnessing the power of connectivity through innovation to develop products that will change people’s lives for the better and help to accelerate the social and economic development of societies,” said Julfar

“This annual summit is productive and will further strengthen our valued relationship with Huawei. We believe that such efforts will enable more differentiated service offerings to the subscribers across our geographical reach through the new Joint Innovation Lab,” he said.

“We are in a dynamic era where technological process is revolutionising how we work, learn and live. In building a better connected world, Huawei and Etisalat Group have enjoyed a longstanding partnership in bringing connectivity to more people around the world,” said Yafang.

“In addition to many shared ambitions for the future, the new Joint Innovation Lab will be able to provide more advanced and efficient service offerings to people across Etisalat’s geographical reach. The initiative will further strengthen Huawei and Etisalat Group’s valued relationship in the years to come,” she added. - TradeArabia News Service