The Future of Telco Security: Building Quantum-Safe Networks Across MENA

This exclusive roundtable will explore how regulators and mobile operators across MENA are preparing for the post-quantum era.

As national cybersecurity authorities across the region publish quantum-readiness guidance and operators begin auditing their cryptographic estates, the transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is moving from a research agenda to an operational programme. The session will bring government agencies and mobile operators together to compare approaches, timelines and expectations.

With sovereign digital infrastructure, national AI ambitions and large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) deployments accelerating across MENA, “harvest now, decrypt later” is a present planning assumption rather than a distant threat. The roundtable will explore what a credible quantum-safe roadmap looks like for the region, and where national policy and operator execution need to align.

The discussion will cover:

- How national cybersecurity authorities are framing quantum risk and what they expect from critical infrastructure operators

- Operator migration journeys, including crypto-inventory, crypto-agility and prioritising what to protect first

- Vendor readiness across the supply chain, from SIM and devices through to the network core

- Regional alignment and where common guidance could help reduce duplicated effort

- GSMA PQTN activity and how operators can contribute

The roundtable is designed to build awareness and foster collaboration by bringing together MENA’s policy and operator communities as the quantum-safe transition begins in earnest.