Vodafone Qatar has announced that it is the first telecoms operator in Qatar and one of the first in the world to achieve a peak speed of 375Mbps on its live mobile network, having tested and deployed tri-band LTE Carrier Aggregation (CA) using 50MHz of spectrum across its sites in Doha Corniche and the Qatar Science & Technology Park. Other sites across Doha are to be progressively equipped with tri-band CA by November 2015, in key locations such as West Bay, Katara, The Pearl and others, the cellco’s press release states.
Ramy Boctor, CTO at Vodafone Qatar, said: ‘With the rollout of 3 Band Carrier Aggregation, we are getting ready for the launch of the newer smartphones which will enable such technology levels and this is expected to happen towards [the] end of August 2015 when some mobile phone manufacturers will start offering these handsets in the market. Having said that, all Vodafone 4G+ customers can now see improvements in speed bringing the maximum speed up to 300Mbps, a significant increase over the existing, but also substantial, 225 Mbps.’
In April this year, Vodafone concluded the first phase of a network evolution programme by upgrading every network site in Doha (65% of its national network). In addition the company installed 134 new outdoor sites, 42 indoor sites, 290 4G outdoor sites and 25 4G indoor sites, increasing both 3G and 4G coverage, doubling 3G capacity, tripling 4G capacity and tripling data capacity. In July 2015 Vodafone began the second phase of the network evolution which will see the same improvements spread outside the capital. At the end of this programme, scheduled for October 2015, Vodafone will have overhauled its entire network to offer better network experience across the whole country.