Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan opened the SAMENA Telecommunications Council Leaders’ Summit 2026 in Dubai on 1 April, using the gathering to frame digital infrastructure as both an economic priority and a strategic pillar at a time of regional uncertainty. Held at Atlantis The Palm, the summit brought together telecom executives, policymakers, technology companies and investors under the theme “Intelligent Networks for Sovereign and Sustainable Futures.”
Speaking at the opening session, Sheikh Nahyan said the UAE would remain “steadfast, capable, and forward-looking” despite external pressures, placing the country’s digital and economic agenda alongside its broader message of stability. His remarks gave the event a wider political tone than a standard industry conference, reflecting how telecoms policy in the Gulf is now bound up with questions of national resilience, trusted infrastructure and long-term competitiveness.
The summit also marked the 20th anniversary of the SAMENA Telecommunications Council, a Dubai-based industry body representing operators and stakeholders across South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Over two decades, the council has built its role around lobbying for regulatory alignment, investment-friendly policy and cross-border coordination on digital issues. That positioning helps explain why this year’s agenda moved well beyond consumer telecoms and into debates over spectrum, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data regulation and the future economics of network ownership.
Organisers had signalled before the event that the summit would focus on aligning policy, technology, market confidence and investment. They also confirmed that the meeting would go ahead as scheduled after consultations with UAE-based stakeholders and the wider SAMENA community, arguing that continuity itself had become important for the market. That framing turned the summit into a signal to investors and operators that the UAE intends to preserve momentum in digital infrastructure even as geopolitical strains and cyber risks weigh on boardroom calculations.
At the policy level, one of the main issues was spectrum. The agenda highlighted the 6 GHz band and early preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027, or WRC-27, where governments and industry groups will contest how future bands are allocated and under what conditions. For operators, spectrum policy is not a narrow technical matter. It shapes capacity, service quality, enterprise use cases and the eventual path towards 6G-era services. For governments, it has become part of industrial policy, balancing mobile expansion against satellite, Wi-Fi and defence interests.
That helps explain why the language of “sovereign” networks has become more prominent. In the Gulf and beyond, policymakers are no longer discussing connectivity only in terms of speed and coverage. The debate has widened to include who controls critical infrastructure, where sensitive data is processed, how artificial intelligence is trained and deployed, and whether countries can rely on imported platforms without exposing themselves to strategic vulnerabilities. By centring sovereignty and sustainability in its headline theme, the summit captured a broader shift in telecoms from pure expansion to controlled, politically aware digital development.
Artificial intelligence formed the second major thread. Organisers said discussions would examine how AI is moving from experimentation to scaled deployment across networks and industries, while also reshaping operator business models. That is increasingly consistent with the industry’s global direction. GSMA this year launched Open Telco AI to speed the development of telecom-grade AI, while separate industry work has focused on how operators can turn AI from a cost-saving tool into a source of new revenue through enterprise services, automation and differentiated network capabilities.
For Gulf operators, the commercial challenge is as important as the technology itself. Traditional mobile revenues are under pressure in many markets, and data growth alone no longer guarantees profit growth. That has pushed carriers to search for new monetisation models built around cloud partnerships, private networks, industrial platforms, data-driven services and AI-enabled operations. SAMENA’s emphasis on privacy-compliant monetisation suggests the region’s telecom leaders are trying to expand those business lines without inviting heavier regulatory friction over consumer data and digital rights.
Huawei’s role as a strategic collaborator, alongside the patronage of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, also underlined the summit’s blend of state oversight and corporate influence. That combination is typical of the region’s telecom landscape, where governments remain deeply involved in digital infrastructure planning while relying on global vendors and large operators to execute national ambitions. Supporters say the model allows faster rollout and clearer strategy. Critics argue that close alignment between regulators, operators and suppliers can narrow the space for market contestability and independent scrutiny.
Speaking at the opening session, Sheikh Nahyan said the UAE would remain “steadfast, capable, and forward-looking” despite external pressures, placing the country’s digital and economic agenda alongside its broader message of stability. His remarks gave the event a wider political tone than a standard industry conference, reflecting how telecoms policy in the Gulf is now bound up with questions of national resilience, trusted infrastructure and long-term competitiveness.
The summit also marked the 20th anniversary of the SAMENA Telecommunications Council, a Dubai-based industry body representing operators and stakeholders across South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Over two decades, the council has built its role around lobbying for regulatory alignment, investment-friendly policy and cross-border coordination on digital issues. That positioning helps explain why this year’s agenda moved well beyond consumer telecoms and into debates over spectrum, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data regulation and the future economics of network ownership.
Organisers had signalled before the event that the summit would focus on aligning policy, technology, market confidence and investment. They also confirmed that the meeting would go ahead as scheduled after consultations with UAE-based stakeholders and the wider SAMENA community, arguing that continuity itself had become important for the market. That framing turned the summit into a signal to investors and operators that the UAE intends to preserve momentum in digital infrastructure even as geopolitical strains and cyber risks weigh on boardroom calculations.
At the policy level, one of the main issues was spectrum. The agenda highlighted the 6 GHz band and early preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027, or WRC-27, where governments and industry groups will contest how future bands are allocated and under what conditions. For operators, spectrum policy is not a narrow technical matter. It shapes capacity, service quality, enterprise use cases and the eventual path towards 6G-era services. For governments, it has become part of industrial policy, balancing mobile expansion against satellite, Wi-Fi and defence interests.
That helps explain why the language of “sovereign” networks has become more prominent. In the Gulf and beyond, policymakers are no longer discussing connectivity only in terms of speed and coverage. The debate has widened to include who controls critical infrastructure, where sensitive data is processed, how artificial intelligence is trained and deployed, and whether countries can rely on imported platforms without exposing themselves to strategic vulnerabilities. By centring sovereignty and sustainability in its headline theme, the summit captured a broader shift in telecoms from pure expansion to controlled, politically aware digital development.
Artificial intelligence formed the second major thread. Organisers said discussions would examine how AI is moving from experimentation to scaled deployment across networks and industries, while also reshaping operator business models. That is increasingly consistent with the industry’s global direction. GSMA this year launched Open Telco AI to speed the development of telecom-grade AI, while separate industry work has focused on how operators can turn AI from a cost-saving tool into a source of new revenue through enterprise services, automation and differentiated network capabilities.
For Gulf operators, the commercial challenge is as important as the technology itself. Traditional mobile revenues are under pressure in many markets, and data growth alone no longer guarantees profit growth. That has pushed carriers to search for new monetisation models built around cloud partnerships, private networks, industrial platforms, data-driven services and AI-enabled operations. SAMENA’s emphasis on privacy-compliant monetisation suggests the region’s telecom leaders are trying to expand those business lines without inviting heavier regulatory friction over consumer data and digital rights.
Huawei’s role as a strategic collaborator, alongside the patronage of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, also underlined the summit’s blend of state oversight and corporate influence. That combination is typical of the region’s telecom landscape, where governments remain deeply involved in digital infrastructure planning while relying on global vendors and large operators to execute national ambitions. Supporters say the model allows faster rollout and clearer strategy. Critics argue that close alignment between regulators, operators and suppliers can narrow the space for market contestability and independent scrutiny.
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