Mufeed Ahmed, co-founder of Qatari startup Qubicle Innovations, emphasised that 5G will be an innovation platform for services, applications, and connected devices rather than “being just a better mobile broadband system” than 3G or 4G.
“What I am talking about is advanced services like autonomous vehicles and connected smart cities. This is where startups and SMEs can take great advantage of the nation's upcoming 5G infrastructure.
“We would be able to create services and applications that are fully-integrated with the network, and then deploy them rapidly in a virtualised environment. In short, I believe 5G would add up to our pace of becoming a diversified economy,” Ahmed told Gulf Times on Monday.
In a statement earlier, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) announced that it has completed the necessary preparations for 5G frequency bands for mobile telecommunications services.
The CRA said it had prepared preliminary frequency plans that can accommodate the demand from Qatar’s telecom service providers of the “main candidate frequency bands” for the use of 5G technology.
Mohamed Ali al-Mannai, the president of the CRA, said the authority is one of the first regulatory bodies in the region and abroad to announce the readiness of 5G frequency plans.
“This announcement will see a great work by Qatar’s telecom service providers to start the formal testing of pre-standard networks for 5G technology this year and to deploy standard commercial networks late 2018 and early 2019,” al-Mannai said.
Once fully-deployed in Qatar, Ahmed said 5G technology will encourage more SMEs to get their businesses connected online.
“Fifth generation technology and other network infrastructure, along with the support from the government to implement the Ministry of Transport and Communications’ ‘Digital Transformation of SMEs’ programme through selected SME partners would bring a big change in the digital presence of the country’s SMEs,” Ahmed said.
He added: “The new delivery companies, some of which are startups, as well as the improvement of online payment systems that companies could use locally, will play a crucial role in the local e-Commerce adoption by SMEs.
“Local delivery solutions and online payment infrastructure will be the backbones of the e-Commerce ecosystem in the country. Innovation and adoption to the new infrastructures available in the country in these two sectors would promote platforms for SMEs to thrive, resulting to high use of e-Commerce services.”
