Visitors at the Ooredoo booth at the Arab Future Cities Summit.
DOHA: Qatar became the first country in the world to witness the launch 5G services as Ooredoo yesterday announced to roll out a live 5G network on the 3.5GHz spectrum band.
The introduction of 5G services will significantly increase Internet speed in the country as 5G network will offer a speed of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) compared to the currently available speed of up to 256 Megabits per second (Mbps).
The launch shows that Qatar’s technological progress remains unaffected despite unjust siege imposed by blockading countries.
“Today, Ooredoo and Qatar make history. We are the first company in the world to offer access to 5G technology and services, and the people of Qatar are the first to have access to the incredible benefits this technological upgrade will bring,” said Waleed Al Sayed, Chief Executive Officer, Ooredoo Qatar, speaking at the launch event held at the Ooredoo Tower in West Bay.
“We dedicate this important milestone to the people of Qatar and to our beloved leaders, who have encouraged this step in building the knowledge-based economy of Qatar,” he said.
For commercial institution the 5G service is ready, but for consumers looking to use this service in mobiles will have to wait a little longer as mobile handsets compatible to this service are not available any where in the world. Mobile handset manufacturers are expected to launch 5G compatible handsets by June 2019.
The first stage of Ooredoo’s 5G Supernet deployment will cover an area from The Pearl-Qatar to Hamad International Airport, with Lagoona, Katara Cultural Village, West Bay, the Corniche and Souq Waqif also included in the initial commercial launch coverage area.
Access to the Ooredoo 5G Supernet will require a 5G compatible device from Ooredoo. The company announced that it is just the beginning of the Ooredoo 5G network, which will continue to be expanded over the coming months to cover more areas.
Ooredoo plans to install 100 5G stations to cover nearly 85 percent of Qatar’s population within three months before the coverage expands to include the whole country with up to 1,200 stations.
“Ooredoo has been a leader in 5G service deployment since 2016. We have invested in the testing and installation of our 5G network so that we can confidently open its benefits fully to our people and the world. The 5G Supernet will be the infrastructural backbone of Qatar as our nation pushes to offer the latest smart applications in-line with Qatar National Vision 2030,” said Al Sayed.
“This network will provide the necessary foundation to introduce a wave of new innovations, including driverless cars and smart roads, virtual and augmented reality, a national fleet of service drones, and much more,” added Al Sayed.
The Ooredoo 5G service offers the latest network technology (5G NR) meaning much higher speeds, capacity, and better latency, than existing cellular systems. The new network will bring advantages over the previous generations of cellular technology and will enable business and consumer customers to unlock more of their potential and explore opportunities that were simply not possible before 5G.
In becoming the first company in the world to deploy commercial 5G, Ooredoo has built upon an impressive number of earlier milestones, including the first-in-the-region trials of 5G on Qatar National Day in 2016, the completion of 10 5G-ready base stations in May 2017, and the launch of the 5G Business services trial in partnership with Qatar Airways in November 2017.
