Mobile data across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region is expected to grow 14 times up to 2020 and regional telecoms network operators have yet to become successful in monetising the growth coming from this segment of their business.

“Revenues are still stagnant despite the explosive growth in mobile data, partly due to regulatory constraints, and it is now up to us to ensure [the growth in mobile data] brings value to our business,” Khaled Hussain Biyari, CEO of Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Telecom Company (STC), told the Ericsson’s Change-Maker forum held in Dubai on 10 January.

In addition to mobile data, information and communications technology (ICT) services, such as the internet-of-things, the cloud, big data and analytics, are being seen as future growth drivers, according to both Biyari, and Ahmad Julfar, CEO of Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat).

Smart city services also offer a major potential source of revenues in the future, said Julfar. “While [smart city services] fall outside our core business, we will pursue and mobilise partnerships in this domain,” he added.

The Etisalat CEO further acknowledged that they have yet to evolve to a level where they could sufficiently address the opportunities offered by the rapid pace of change in customer behaviours when it comes to data consumption.

Telecoms operators’ participation in smart city projects across the region is being seen as crucial not only because most of them are state-owned and have a deep national interest in these projects, but because unlike other types of investors, they can sustain a long payback cycle.

Some of the smart city projects that have been advancing include the Yanbu smart city in Saudi Arabia and the Dubai Design District (D3).

In addition to smart initiatives being aggressively initiated by various federal and municipal governments, other major greenfield smart city projects that are under construction include Msheireb Downtown Doha and the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD).