Ooredoo has announced that it is building a '5G-ready' network, having added a 10th base station equipped with 5G-ready technology over the weekend.

With the addition of the 10th base station, Ooredoo has "successfully" passed another "important technology milestone". The company has already started reducing the latency of its network towards 1 ms – the standard specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the proposed baseline for next generation 5G technology.

In addition, Ooredoo has ensured that it has sufficient bandwidth by deploying the world’s most advanced fibre network using the latest GPON technology.

Ooredoo continues to test important 5G equipment, software, and spectrum requirements leading up to the standardisation of 5G technology towards the end of 2017, after which technology partners and handset manufacturers will launch their 5G offerings.

Meeting these technology milestones has given Ooredoo the confidence to confirm that the company will be able to offer one of the world’s first fully-accessible proprietary 5G networks.

Ooredoo Qatar CEO Waleed Mohamed al-Sayed said: “If you look at the history of our network, Ooredoo has always been a regional pioneer, ensuring that the people of Qatar enjoy the best network and fastest data experience. By creating a 5G-ready network, we believe we will be among the first operators in the world to offer incredible 5G speed and services for all our customers.”

In December 2016, Ooredoo was one of the first companies to successfully conduct 5G trials for speed and latency, achieving incredible speeds and much lower latency. Since this milestone, Ooredoo has pushed forward in building a 5G-ready network foundation across Qatar, including the 10 new base stations.

“We hope to have 5G speeds available by the end of the year and we’re already looking to colloborate with partners to ensure that a full range of 5G-ready devices and smartphones will be available for Ooredoo customers in Qatar,” al-Sayed said.

Ooredoo continues to enhance Qatar’s mobile, Wi-Fi and nationwide Ooredoo Fibre networks on the Ooredoo Supernet as part of the company’s vision to be a data experience leader for all of Qatar.