Ooredoo’s 5G pilot projects have driven Qatar to be ranked globally among the "world’s top five 5G-leading countries", a new report released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday showed.
The report was launched by Ooredoo and Arthur D. Little (ADL).
The ADL 5G index benchmarks more than 40 countries, in terms of advancement in 5G, based on two main categories of input data spanning technical infrastructure availability and 5G commercialisation tendency.
In Qatar, Ooredoo has been actively driving its 5G agenda, and found success with the first launch of 5G on a commercially available network globally in May 2018.
Ooredoo Qatar Chief Executive Officer Waleed al-Sayed said: “Ooredoo has always had a strong technology push and followed global best practices in the adoption of next generation mobile network technologies – we have made 5G spectrum available, have announced ambitious goals for 5G rollout, and have successfully trialed various use-cases, to include the world’s first drone taxi.”
With 100 mobile sites already upgraded and operating on 5G, Ooredoo is now covering more than a third of the population, and nearly all large enterprises, with 5G – this will grow to more than 50% population coverage in 2019.
Beyond the figures, Ooredoo has been very successful with live testing of various use-cases. It was proven that within the 5G network, >2.5 Gbps download speeds are available even in moving vehicles, drones can send 4K live videos, VR applications run smoothly in world cup fan zones, and Gbit connectivity can be provided in the desert.
Dr Karim Taga, managing partner and global practice leader, ADL TIME, said,“5G is the first mobile network generation which promises the data throughput, latency, and flexibility to enable the next level of digitisation across consumer types.”
“In Qatar, especially vertical eco-systems and corporates will benefit most from 5G. Use cases based on 5G like AR/VR and enhanced video are suited for smart venues and smart city to enable a next level user experience,” Taga added.
While at Mobile World Congress, Ooredoo extended its 5G leadership with a new partnership with Ericsson to transform and modernise mobile networks for introducing 5G across Qatar.
