Qatar is expected to become the first country in the world to launch 5G mobile network services, said a top official of Ooredoo Qatar, country’s leading telecom services provider.
In this regard, Ooredoo, the Qatar-based telecom giant, is negotiating with various stakeholders and organisations, including the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to advance the launch date of 5G services. The 5G technology is expected to go on trial by the end of 2018, which is slated to be launched commercially by 2020 worldwide.
“We believe 2020 is very far away. So we are trying with manufacturers and other concerned entities such as ITU and GSM Association (organiser of Mobile World Congress) to bring the launch date forward,” Waleed Al Sayed, CEO of Ooredoo Qatar told The Peninsula.
He added: “Although this is not in our hands but we are trying our level best for this. We also want to promise the people of Qatar that we will be the first in the world to launch 5G services.”
He said that the company always strive to provide a very high bandwidth on mobile broadband. And in this regard, Ooredoo signed an agreement with Huawei in Barcelona to build the region’s first 5G R&D Centre in Qatar, aiming to conduct all kinds of possible research studies related to the future technology and innovation.
The works on the Centre, according to Al Sayed, is progressing in full swing in a very high security area. Once ready Ooredoo will announced about it in a media gathering .
He said that the local engineers and students from Qatar-based universities will also be allowed to have access to the R&D Centre for experiments. “We are doing everything possible for people, things, and orgnaisations in Qatar to get connected with the rest of the world. Being the only telecom service provider with high bandwidth capability, we are also working as a catalysts to attract businesses to invest in the country,” Al Sayed added.
“Our company has signed agreements with scores of organizations in Qatar, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to connect all the embassies. We have also signed agreements with Al Jazeera Network and beIN (sports TV network) to connect their offices across the world.”
Ooredoo ‘does not see apps as a threat’
Asked about the impact of the pervasive use of Internet Protocol Mode, such as WhatsApp, Skype and Viber, to make voice calls, especially overseas, on the Company’s revenue, he said that initially Ooredoo was worried about it as the demand for traditional voice call and SMS services started going down significantly, but the Company adapted the situation instead of fighting against it, by transforming the challenge into an opportunity.
“We at Ooredoo do not see these apps as a threat. Nearly two years ago we started working on it taking it as a new opportunity. We have migrated our business to become a data enabler. And today we sell more data than selling voice and SMS services. By the end of this year, the share of revenues from data is expected to be more than 60 percent,” he said.
Al Sayed cautioned that companies that are continuing to stick with voice and SMS services, are going to face a very big failure in the future.
Source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/383675/qatar-may-be-first-to-launch-5g-services