I have walked the corridors of GITEX for several years now. Every time I arrive at the Dubai World Trade Centre, I expect innovation, but I leave thinking, “They’ve raised the bar again.”

This year, that perception was cemented within minutes of stepping into the main hall.

It began with a visual that stuck with me: a law-enforcement EV quietly rolling down the corridor outside the expo, its sensors scanning faces (and capable of screening license plates) in real time, then stepping into the hall and immediately connecting to Etisalat’s 5.5G network. That juxtaposition of futuristic cars and ultra-low latency connection set the tone.

Inside the exhibition, you didn’t just see “next-gen networks” or “AI demos”; you saw ecosystems.

At one stand, a telecom operator turned connectivity into an industrial framework; at another, a vendor showed how AI models train while network slices manage millions of IoT devices.

Clearly, there is a lot I want to tell you about, but with over 6,800 exhibitors, more than 2,000 startups from 180 countries, and over 1,200 investors at this year’s GITEX, I simply can’t cover it all.

What hit me as a consistent thread this year: telecommunications is no longer simply about “faster mobile for consumers.” It’s shifting into platform operator, nation-builder, and enterprise architect.

For Pakistani telcos grappling with saturated 4G, nascent 5G, and fragmented digital revenue streams, the lessons on show at GITEX 2025 are timely if properly digested.

Before we jump into a few actionable takeaways, let me record something that sums up the feeling: walking into the pavilion of e&, you encountered a live deployment of 5.5G where drones hovered and streamed HD video, oil-rig engineers offshore manipulated sensors in real time, while a female robot interacted with visitors, all in parallel.

The spectacle made me pause: this is not “future” anymore. At least in that region, it’s happening. If Pakistan’s telcos decide to treat their next network jump as “happening now,” they can shift from being followers to frontrunners.

With that in mind, here are six concrete things Pakistani telcos can learn from GITEX Global 2025, drawn from the wider stage and anchored by real examples (including e& UAE) that illustrate what good looks like.

These lessons, if applied sincerely, could redefine Pakistan’s telecom narrative from survival to leadership.

Lead with Outcomes, Not Just Speeds

If there’s one thing that stood out this year, it’s that global operators have stopped selling “speed”, they’re selling solutions.

Operators around the world are becoming far more proactive. Instead of waiting for vendors or solution providers to knock on their doors, they’re going out, finding partners, and co-creating ready-made, cookie-cutter solutions that enterprises can instantly deploy.

It’s no longer “let’s wait for a logistics company to ask for IoT tracking.” It’s the telco showing up and saying, “Here’s a plug-and-play logistics tracking suite, powered by our network.”

It’s not “maybe hospitals will need private 5G someday.” It’s “here’s a private 5G-enabled patient monitoring solution, let’s pilot it now.” This is a huge mindset shift. Telcos are not responding to market demand anymore; they’re creating it.

At GITEX, every major operator echoed that philosophy. Instead of showing download tests or Mbps counters, they showcased real-world applications. That’s what defines leadership now, not theoretical capabilities, but practical, repeatable business models built on network strength.

For Pakistan’s operators, this lesson is crucial. Don’t wait for industries to ask what 5G is or what it can do. Go to them with prototypes, bundled solutions, and clear ROI.

If telcos lead with outcomes, not bandwidth charts, they stop being just service providers and start being solution creators.

Stress-Test Before You Celebrate

If there’s one thing I’ve learned watching GITEX over the years, it’s this: the world doesn’t launch networks in silence at a press briefing anymore. They prove them in public.

When Etisalat (e& UAE) rolled out its 5.5G network, it didn’t just hang banners and post a few speed tests. It turned Dubai itself into a live test lab.

During GITEX 2025, there were over 200,000 people inside the Dubai World Trade Centre, all connected, streaming, uploading, running AI demos, and testing new devices. Through all that traffic, e&’s 5.5G network didn’t blink.

What impressed me wasn’t just speed, it was how quietly reliable the network felt. 8K video streaming from drones, AI-driven safety cameras, connected bots, hundreds of thousands of devices, all live, together.

You could feel the gigantic data network working in the background, quietly powering the madness around you. That’s what real testing looks like. That’s what we call confidence built on performance, not marketing.

So yes, celebrate your launch, but only after you’ve tested it under pressure. Don’t sell us speed tests. Show us what your network can handle.

Merge Consumer and Enterprise Strategy

I have sat on both sides of the table, in a telco boardroom hearing about enterprise deals, and on a subscriber’s couch arguing with my wife about streaming lag.

The surprising truth? The networks looked the same. The difference was only in pricing and contract length.

At GITEX Global 2025, the theme was loud and clear: there are no separate lanes anymore. The consumer network and the enterprise network are the same road.

Global operators are teaching us this lesson fast. Take the example of converged service strategies: bundles of fixed-line broadband, mobile, and TV that not only boost revenue but also keep the customer locked into your ecosystem.

Or think about how telcos and banks are partnering for “mobile plus payment account” products, these aren’t enterprise tools anymore; they’re everyday personal tools.

At GITEX, I walked into a 5.5G pavilion where a family streamer device sat side by side with a private wireless robot arm in a factory. The same slice of network, two wildly different use cases. It was the “entertainment” side and the “industry” side running live together. The message was: your “consumer market” is tomorrow’s “industrial IoT market.”

There is no neat separation.

Why This Matters for Pakistan

In Pakistan, most operators still think of their business like this:

Consumer team: SIM cards, bundles, video plans.

Enterprise team: separate deals, dedicated account managers, “corporate” branding.

But that model is breaking down.

Because:

The device in your hand streams Netflix, but it also controls your home camera, connects to your office VPN, and may one day be your factory robot remote.

A business today wants the same slick UX as a consumer expects, “It just works, always connected.” The technical stack doesn’t change between a gamer with a headset and a drone with a camera, it’s the service level, the pricing, and the relationship that differ.

If Pakistani telcos treat these as separate, they leave value on the table. The smart ones globally aren’t splitting the business; they’re uniting it.

What Pakistani Operators Can Do Right Now

• Stop marketing separate tracks. Use one unified network narrative: “Our network serves your home, your business, your world.”
• Build offers that span both worlds. For example, a bundle for home and work (remote worker package), or a “family plus startup” package where the same connection supports kids streaming and your side-business devices.
• Train your sales and operations teams together. Consumer salespeople should know what enterprise private wireless means; enterprise salespeople should know what home streaming means. The division should blur.
• Track common KPIs. Instead of “consumer ARPU” and “enterprise deal size,” track “network share per household” or “connected devices per customer account”, metrics that reflect the unified reality.
• When you zoom out, the truth is simple: the difference between a “consumer” and an “enterprise” today is not the network, it’s the expectation. And that expectation is convergence: the same high-quality connectivity, the same freedom to use it, just different purposes.

If Pakistani telcos recognize that early, if you stop treating business users like a special corner and start treating everyone like a connected user, you’ll shape the narrative instead of chasing it.

Use Public Events as Policy Platforms

One thing GITEX reminded me of is how powerful public collaboration can be when the right people share the same stage. It wasn’t just companies showing off technology; it was policymakers, regulators, and operators openly designing the future together.

You could see it everywhere.

The UAE Cyber Security Council was holding meetings right inside the expo hall, not tucked away in boardrooms. They signed live agreements with e&, Nokia, and several AI security firms in front of cameras, journalists, and the public.

Government representatives from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the UK debated on stage about spectrum pricing, AI regulation, and private 5G licensing. The conversation wasn’t defensive or bureaucratic. It was constructive, data-backed, and transparent.

That openness builds trust and sets direction.

When regulators, telcos, and tech companies publicly share their roadmaps, the industry starts aligning faster. It reduces confusion, invites fresh ideas, and most importantly, creates a sense that everyone is in it together.

Now, let’s look inward.

In Pakistan, most policy debates happen behind closed doors, at ministry meetings or private sessions (if they ever happen, mind you). The public never hears the reasoning, the research, or the alternatives considered.

So when a policy is finally announced, whether it’s on spectrum, data privacy, or tax, it feels like a surprise to the very people it will impact most. We need to change that culture.

PTA, MoIT, and telcos should use platforms like Digital Pakistan, ITCN Asia, or even global events like GITEX to do more than just set up booths. They should be presenting white papers, publishing written recommendations, and sharing policy feedback publicly, complete with data, charts, and global comparisons.

Imagine a Pakistani telco presenting a “5G Spectrum Pricing Framework for Emerging Economies” paper at GITEX. Or maybe SBP sharing a report on how it dealt with financial scams in the country.

It would send a clear message: we’re not waiting for others to tell our story, we’re shaping it together.

Make Infrastructure Visible and Believable

In Dubai, telecom infrastructure wasn’t hiding in server rooms, it was on stage. Everywhere you turned at GITEX, connectivity was visible, measurable, and alive.

Holographic towers pulsed with live network data. Massive LED walls showed real-time coverage maps across the UAE, and you could actually watch how the 5.5G signal responded as devices moved across zones. But the real magic wasn’t just inside GITEX, it was outside, across Dubai.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and local operators were working hand in hand, sending live traffic and parking alerts straight to connected devices within congested areas during peak hours.

If there was congestion near Sheikh Zayed Road or limited parking around Dubai World Trade Centre, you got a message instantly, powered by the same network everyone was celebrating inside. Even the logistics of the event showed how deep the connectivity ran.

There were centralized registration kiosks that verified attendees within seconds using QR code scanning devices, connected to the servers at the back end.

Food stalls, cafes, and even small vendors were strictly cashless, and those caught accepting cash were fined on the spot. That wasn’t enforcement for the sake of it, it was proof that a connected, digital economy works only when everyone plays by the same rules.

Need to meet someone? You didn’t need a business card or a random email. The GITEX app had a live catalogue of all 6,800 exhibitors, complete with profiles, product lists, and calendar slots. Anyone could set up a meeting with anyone, telco executives, AI founders, policymakers, in seconds.

Now imagine if Pakistani telcos started doing the same.

What if the public could log on and see real latency numbers or heatmaps of network congestion, updated every few minutes? Or if PTA and operators jointly ran open dashboards where citizens could track network site rollouts or rural fiber expansion in real time?

This isn’t science fiction. When people can see the infrastructure, they trust it. When they trust it, they use it more. And when they use it more, the entire digital economy grows.

So yes, ads and slogans can promise a lot, but transparency and visibility deliver belief.

Move Beyond Connectivity – Build Platforms

I’ve written about this before, in 2015 in fact, when I argued that telcos should stop calling themselves telecom companies and start thinking like tech companies.

They already own what every startup dreams of having: millions of active users, verified data, and nationwide payment access.

But instead of building products around that power, we’ve spent years selling the same thing, data, minutes, and SMS, just in prettier packaging. Connectivity is the foundation. It’s not the product anymore.

At GITEX this year, that point couldn’t have been clearer. e& had a section dedicated to fintech apps, smart homes, and AI-driven health tools, all built on top of the same network, as we have those in Pakistan.

Saudi’s STC went a step further, opening up developer APIs that let others build on its infrastructure, from startups making logistics dashboards to hospitals running remote diagnostics. In other words, the network has become a platform, not a pipeline.

Now here’s the irony: Pakistani telcos have more potential than most of these international players. We already process millions of micro-payments daily, manage verified KYC databases that fintechs would pay fortunes for, and have reach in every city and village.

That’s the dream foundation for a digital ecosystem.

So why aren’t we doing it?

Because we’ve tried before and failed.

And the failure wasn’t because of technology; it was because of mindset. When telcos try to build products, they usually do it as a special project, set budgets, timelines, rules, KPIs, ROIs, and command chains. Startups operate differently. They build by experimenting fast, failing fast, and iterating faster.

Telcos, on the other hand, still treat every product idea like a five-year infrastructure project.

That’s why I believe: if we want real innovation, telcos shouldn’t do it alone. They should bring in startup people, product thinkers, designers, growth hackers, or even better, partner directly with startups that already understand agility, user experience, and scale.

Imagine a Pakistani telco teaming up with a local fintech or AI startup, building something that’s immediately deployable to 10 million users on day one.

Or exporting that product abroad, because the same digital identity or solution could work anywhere from Nigeria to Thailand or beyond.

Imagine what happens if a telco joins hands with a company like Advergic (an ad-tech company I am currently working with), which works at the intersection of data, advertising, and user monetization.

With Advergic’s intelligence layer plugged into a telco’s anonymized user base, you could suddenly unlock personalized marketing at national scale, not just random ads, but meaningful, privacy-safe campaigns that actually drive revenue for local businesses.

Think about it.

A telco and Advergic could help a grocery chain in Karachi boost sales through targeted ad campaigns, showing discounts only to high-intent users living nearby or people who’ve previously ordered groceries online.

The next step? Close the loop with telco billing, where users could click, buy, and pay through their phone account instantly.

That’s connectivity meeting commerce, and the entire ecosystem benefits: the telco earns new revenue, the brand gets smarter targeting, and the user gets more relevant offers.

This is what “moving beyond connectivity” really looks like. It’s not about building another app, it’s about building value on top of the network you already own.

Pakistani telcos have the reach. Startups like Advergic have the innovation DNA. Together, they could export digital advertising and data-driven retail intelligence not just across Pakistan, but to the entire region.

The future telco won’t just provide data or access, it’ll power the digital economy sitting on top of that data.

And if we get it right, the next global case study about telco-startup synergy could very well be written from Pakistan.