Ooredoo Qatar has launched the country’s first commercial LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) service, boosting its network’s peak mobile downlink data speeds to 225Mbps from its previous limit of 150Mbps, the operator announced in a press release. The ‘4G+’ services are initially available in parts of Doha – Corniche, West Bay lagoon, Katara, Souq Waqif, Al Rayyan, Shahaniya and Sealine – from 1 December at no added cost for users with devices supporting LTE-A on either 800MHz or 2600MHz frequency bands.
Ooredoo’s sole LTE radio and core network technology provider Nokia Networks issued its own press release highlighting the project’s technical advancements, noting that carrier aggregation (CA), a key feature of LTE-A, enables operators to create larger, virtual carrier bandwidths for services by combining separate spectrum bands, thus boosting network capacity and speed as well as performance. For the Qatari launch, Nokia provided its ‘Flexi Multiradio 10’ base stations, Evolved Packet Core technology and NetAct network management system; it combined the 800MHz and 2600MHz spectrum bands by upgrading the currently installed equipment with its CA software; while the vendor also provided network planning services.
Waleed Al-Sayed, COO, Ooredoo Qatar, said: ‘The demand for higher network capacity and speed in malls, stadiums and at national events is growing at a rapid pace. With Nokia Networks’ help, we are now able to address this demand, offering the fastest network with latest technology for our customers.’