Huawei aims to meet the ever-expanding mobile demands of football fans during the world’s largest sporting event in Qatar as it collaborates with local carriers in connecting all eight FIFA World Cup stadiums to high-speed internet, said an official.
In an interview with The Peninsula on the sidelines of the opening of Milipol Qatar 2022 yesterday, Safder Nazir (pictured), Senior Vice-President of Digital Industries at Huawei Middle East said the company’s fibre project in Qatar since 2010 has been one of its biggest signature projects here to date. Today, Qatar has one of the highest fibre coverages in the world at 99 percent, Nazir said.
He added: “For the World Cup, we’re connecting all of the eight stadiums with a very high capacity broadband wireless technology, which is giving 500 gigabytes of capacity to each of the stadium. What that will allow is many people to be connected, and be able to share their World Cup experiences with families and friends wherever they are. And as we use 5G technology in the future, we’ll see that there’s more immersive experience as well”.
Huawei has also previously stated that Qatar’s investments in 5G technology will also enable brand new experiences during the World Cup, such as 8K live broadcasts and exciting in-home viewer experiences through augmented and virtual reality.
Speaking about post-World Cup projects and partnerships in Qatar, Nazir said Huawei is committed to helping the country achieve its National Vision 2030, as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
He added: “Qatar is moving well on its way to achieving its goals. We look forward to working with the government across the board in helping them achieve and deliver on the National Vision and the United Nations SDGs”.
Innovation and sustainability are at the forefront of most major projects currently implemented in the GCC region. Nazir reiterated Huawei’s delivery of 400 megawatt of solar inverters for the Red Sea project in Saudi Arabia last year, as well as its 1.3 gigawatt hour of battery storage project which is considered the biggest battery storage project in the world.
“For Qatar, specifically, we would love to see and work with Qatar in its sustainable development goals, and help deliver on a concept which I would call an Ecopolis. I believe there’s potential for Qatar to create a new living experience, where it is not only carbon neutral, but is innovative and addresses the livability issues and all the issues within the SDGs and the QNV 2030."
“A bit like what other countries are doing, like Neom in Saudi Arabia. To create a physical manifestation of all of the ambitions of the country, create innovation, practice sustainability, put all of that into a single place, and create it as a part of Qatar’s brand and give back to the world,” Nazir added.
Huawei’s pavilion at Milipol Qatar 2022 showcases the company’s advanced technology solutions, including its digital power technologies to power business groups, solar energy products which are a global market leader, as well as communication and cloud technologies, among others.
“As we digitise more, it’s more critical for us to secure that data. And from a national perspective, data resilience is a key topic. And a part of data resilience also means not only having your data in your country, but under the sovereign control of your country as well. And that is what allows Huawei to be able to transform all industries, and we look forward to doing more work with more of the ministries and companies within Qatar to help them in their journey,”said Nazir.
