Al Arabiya news channel hosted a panel which focused on the future of media and telecommunications. Leading telecom addressed the pressing concerns of the industry at a roundtable moderated by Nadine Hany, senior business news presenter at Al Arabiya.

Panelists of the forum included Othman Sultan, CEO of du, Ghassan Hasbani, CEO International of STC, Dr. Paul Doany, CEO of Oger Telecom and Ali Al Ahmed, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of Etisalat UAE.

Othman Sultan, CEO of du, pointed out that the future of the telecom industry is bright and will grow further than the present companies since the application and communication tools are present and vital in everyday life. Sultan confirmed the need for government support, even if not direct, in investing in the telecommunications network and infrastructure to ensure higher financial returns and to adopt current technological advances. Sultan also added that the Arab world is still not heavily "digitized" however "du" ensures to mark its presence and leadership in digital offerings.

Ghassan Hasbani, CEO International of STC addressed the continuous change of the telecom industry and also stressed on the importance of government support to stimulate investments in the sector and ensure fair competition and proper investment opportunities in the infrastructure. Hasbani also highlighted that telecom companies always aim to reduce their operating costs, which is one of the driving factors for their global and regional expansion to offer more complementary services with less cost. Hasbani also highlighted that telecom companies have gone a long way to reach international standards and that STC earns around thirty percent of its revenues from its foreign subsidiaries.

Dr. Paul Doany stressed that investment in the telecommunications sector means going into a future that is known and that is recognized, at least for the next five years, and touched on the investments that companies make in the infrastructure of local networks within their countries usually have a higher return on investment and are far less risky versus investments done outside their operating boundaries.

Doany further talked about the role of competition faced nowadays by the online and digital worlds, such as Google and Apple, that provide voice services and paid content, in addition to Facebook and the revenues generated by advertising, given that these sites are using the possibilities of telecommunications companies in the region and reap the returns alone.

Ali Al Ahmed, Chief Corporate Communications Officer, started his discussion by emphasizing that the time is optimal to seize opportunities in the telecommunication sector in agreement with the current situation and future of each player in the region, pointing out that the acquisition of ZAIN comes as part of the strategy developed by Etisalat five years ago, and raised the number of customers from 5 million subscribers to 110 million users, with revenues from foreign markets exceeding 20% and is expected to be up by 40% in the future.

Ahmad also said that the expansion in the telecommunications sector gives a strong addition to the performance and status of companies and supports the national income of the Governments by pumping investment and reaping the returns.

Jawad Abbassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisors Group, expressed that the Arab region will witness a focus on services within the coming years, especially on high speed internet services, and the introduction fourth generation mobile phones; he also added that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, will focus on the extension of fiber international high-speed which will allow the integration additional means of entertainment and communications.

Abassi also expressed that this development does not mean the elimination of individual differences among the companies, since the gap between the Arab states investing in ongoing infrastructure of the telecommunications networks and those experiencing economic problems will continue to increase.