Microsoft completes Middle East 5G agreement as its telecom push gains pace

Following its recent agreement to assist in the construction of a 5G standalone network in the Middle East, Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to take on Huawei Technologies and other manufacturers of telecom equipment.

This week, the American business declared that it will assist Etisalat, a.k.a. e&, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, in expanding its network throughout the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking to reporters on the fringes of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Azure for Operators, stated that this is the second significant project to use their hybrid cloud Azure Operator Nexus, following AT&T. The largest event for the telecom sector this year is MWC.

The agreement Microsoft reached is a victory for both the business and those who support Open RAN, an initiative to provide uniform guidelines for base stations. Open RAN aims to disrupt the trillion-dollar telecom infrastructure sector, which is now dominated by Ericsson, Nokia, and China's Huawei. One of the most important components of communication networks is radio access networks, or RANs.

Companies like Microsoft, Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are among those hoping that the adoption of Open RAN will be accelerated by the wave of 5G upgrades and the soaring demand for generative AI.

The largest telecom company in America, AT&T, was the first carrier client of Microsoft to implement its cloud-based core network for 5G connectivity. In 2021, this arrangement was made public.

Microsoft's ability to combine cloud and AI technology gives it an advantage in the telecom space. The firm announced earlier this week that it was investing $16 million in Mistral AI, a France-based AI model startup. Mistral AI is the startup that built ChatGPT and is the main investor behind Open AI, the generative AI startup.