Dubai, UAE, 23 September 2026 – The SAMENA Telecommunications Council convened the Digital Continuity Forum 2026 at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai, bringing together telecommunications regulators, operators, technology providers, industry organizations, and digital ecosystem stakeholders to examine the various contexts of digital continuity and how essential digital services can remain available, recover effectively, and continue operating as infrastructure dependencies become broader and more complex. The Forum also considered how continuity principles form part of the foundation for future network technologies, including 6G.
Held with the Chief Patronage of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) of the UAE, the Forum examined digital continuity across telecommunications networks, cloud and computing infrastructure, power, software platforms, security environments, and other systems that increasingly depend on one another. Discussions throughout the day reflected the reality that continuity depends on multiple infrastructure layers, organizations, and technology domains working together, and, as noted in the introduction of the Forum, digital continuity is the demonstration of capabilities built around resilience, which itself can be understood across multiple dimensions.
A central development during the Forum was the launch of the GCC Network Resilience Joint Initiative, led by the SAMENA Council as a continuing framework for practical industry engagement. The Initiative is intended to help establish a clearer common understanding of what resilient digital infrastructure needs to be capable of and to support further cooperation among regulators, operators, technology providers, standards bodies, industry organizations, and other relevant stakeholders. Its initial framework is built around six practical capabilities: PREVENT, TOLERATE, CONTAIN, RECOVER, OBSERVE, and VALIDATE. Together, these capabilities provide a practical basis for examining how infrastructure can anticipate disruption, withstand adverse conditions, limit their effects, restore services, maintain visibility, and verify preparedness.
The launch reflected a broader theme running across the Forum. Resilience extends beyond network redundancy and includes architecture, investment, operational readiness, restoration capability, route diversity, security, automation, observability, and the performance of interconnected systems outside the direct control of any single stakeholder. These dimensions formed an important part of the Forum’s wider discussion on how continuity can be built, measured, and demonstrated across increasingly interdependent infrastructure environments.
The opening panel considered digital continuity as a foundation for future networks and examined how telecom networks operate within a wider set of dependencies that includes cloud infrastructure, computing environments, power systems, software platforms, and other critical services. Participants discussed the roles of regulators, operators, technology providers, and ecosystem stakeholders in improving preparedness, reducing vulnerabilities across interconnected infrastructure, and ensuring that continuity requirements are considered earlier in infrastructure planning and development.
The discussion then moved into network resilience, sovereign infrastructure, and future-network readiness, where attention turned to infrastructure architecture, route and geographic diversity, operational control, investment requirements, technology choices, interoperability, and cross-border dependencies. Participants considered how infrastructure planning must address immediate continuity requirements while also preparing for the technical and operational demands of future networks.
Autonomous networks were also examined from both operator and technology-provider perspectives, as observed in keynotes delivered by the Forum’s key collaborators, including Huawei. Discussions considered how automation, orchestration, AI-enabled operations, observability, and closed-loop functions can contribute to faster detection, response, restoration, and operational decision-making. Speakers also addressed the importance of maintaining carrier-grade reliability, accountability, operational control, and clear human responsibility as network functions become more autonomous.
The Forum also addressed critical infrastructure security and digital continuity, with discussions examining how cyber threats, physical infrastructure failures, software dependencies, power disruptions, and other operational risks can interact. Participants considered the importance of identifying dependencies, improving situational awareness, containing failures, coordinating response mechanisms, and preparing for circumstances in which prevention measures alone may not be sufficient to maintain services.
The program also addressed future network development, including 6G, AI-native networks, standards, spectrum, security, and regional participation in the evolution of future technologies. Future readiness was considered in terms of both technology development and the ability of regulators, operators, standards communities, and technology stakeholders to participate early in shaping technical requirements, operating models, security expectations, and spectrum frameworks.
The Forum further provided a platform for broader industry cooperation. The SAMENA Council and the Wireless Access Alliance held their first formal engagement through a dedicated WLAN roundtable focused on regional cooperation, WLAN innovation, user experience, standardization, and the growing scope for cooperation between industry bodies as Wi-Fi, WLAN, and mobile networks become more closely connected within the wider access environment. The discussion provided an opportunity for WAA and regional stakeholders, particularly regional operators, to establish direct engagement and consider areas for continued interaction.
The Digital Continuity Forum 2026 forms part of the SAMENA Council’s continuing work to bring regulators, telecommunications operators, technology providers, industry organizations, and other stakeholders together around the development, reliability, and future direction of digital infrastructure across the region.
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Source: SAMENA Council Press Release
