The month of October was a massive one for commercial 5G deployments globally, commencing with the 20-city network launched by Zain in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the month, and ending with China’s three main service providers – China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom – announcing the commercial availability of 5G services in parts of 50 cities across the country. The operators claim the launch is the largest 5G rollout in the world to-date, coming just six months after the government issued concessions.

Combined, the three cellcos deployed approximately 86,000 5G base stations and expect to have more than 130,000 in place by year-end. Market leader China Mobile aims to install 50,000 sites by end-December, while China Unicom and China Telecom have each targeted about 40,000.

GSMA Intelligence forecasts that China will have 36 per cent of its mobile customer base on 5G by 2025. Because of its huge population this translates to 600 million subscribers – roughly 40 per cent of the entire global 5G market at that time.

Following media reports last month that Faisal Al Bannai, Founder and former Managing Director of UAE cyber security firm DarkMatter, was looking to exit the business altogether by year-end, last week he made his first public appearance as CEO and Managing Director of a newly created national defence technology-focused conglomerate called EDGE.

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In the most significant early bet on the long-term viability of 5G technology in the Middle East, Zain Saudi Arabia announced the launch of 5G in the Kingdom, with the first phase of the rollout being implemented through a network of 2,000 towers that cover an area of more than 20 cities.  This massive rollout is set to be followed by a gradual expansion of the network to cover a total of 26 cities utilising 2,600 towers by the end of 2019.

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UAE telco Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) has announced the departure of long-standing CEO, Osman Sultan, to be replaced by Johan Dennelind, who is set to assume the role early next year. Sultan has been the CEO of du since its launch in 2006.

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UK telco Vodafone is set to become the third operator in Oman after signing an agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Communications that will see Oman Future Telecommunications work with the firm to deploy the country’s third mobile network.

In May, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Oman said a memorandum of understanding had been signed between a group of investment funds in Oman and Vodafone. Upon commercialisation, Vodafone will become the third cellco in Oman behind Omantel and Nawras, and will also have to contend with two mobile virtual network operators – Virgin Mobile Middle East and Renna Mobile.

The UK new entrant will have its work cut out for it with respect to gaining market share with Oman’s mobile penetration rate estimated at over 150%.