الاتصالات كركيزة للسيادة الرقمية والاقتصاد الجديد

For decades, the telecommunications sector has been one of the pillars of economic growth in the world. Mobile phones, the internet, and data have created massive waves of expansion and generated companies with unprecedented revenues and profits. But this era has ended. The era of huge revenues based on selling minutes and gigabytes will not return. Communication has become a basic service like electricity and water—necessary but not wealth-generating.

Today, most telecommunications markets are saturated, capital investments are increasing while growth is slowing, and prices are under pressure. Increasing capacity and networks no longer mean an increase in revenues. Economic value has shifted to other layers such as data, digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and digital transactions. Whoever controls these layers controls the coming economy.

This reality creates a strategic paradox where telecommunications companies build and manage the networks through which everything flows, yet they do not own the layers that generate the most value. Above these networks, global platforms are growing, building markets, clouds, services, and artificial intelligence, accumulating vast wealth while the network operator remains at the bottom of the chain. This transformation is no longer just a business issue but has become a matter of sovereignty and economic security. Countries that do not possess their digital infrastructure—identity, data, transactions, and local cloud—become dependent on external platforms to manage their economy, society, and institutions. In this era of data and artificial intelligence, this dependency represents a strategic risk.

For a country like Saudi Arabia, which is building an advanced and diversified economy, owning sovereign digital infrastructure is a prerequisite for creating digital wealth. The upcoming digital economy will determine the ability to control industry, government services, the financial sector, supply chains, and national security. Whoever owns the data and transaction platforms owns the heart of the economy. Therefore, the future of the telecommunications sector globally does not lie in returning to traditional revenue growth but in transforming into sovereign digital platforms. This requires a radical change in the business model and governance. It necessitates separating network management from platform management and building software and environmental capabilities that allow for the construction of a digital economy on a secure national infrastructure.

In the coming decade, the sector will split into two paths. One path will transform into stable infrastructure companies with limited returns, and the other path will transform into digital platforms that control the flows of data, identity, and transactions, becoming part of the backbone of the national economy. The difference between the two paths is not technical but lies in vision, governance, and the courage to rebuild the institution. Telecommunications will not lose its importance, but it will never return to the era of easy revenues. It must either become the foundation for digital wealth and national sovereignty or turn into just a network through which the wealth of others flows.

* rjahdali@gmail.com