Cellco Viva Kuwait, a subsidiary of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), has announced in a press release the successful testing of ‘5G’ network technology in its lab, achieving wireless data speeds of nearly 35Gbps, and claiming a ‘country first,’ although its statement did not specify details of its 5G lab equipment set-up. The company noted that 5G will enable higher capacity and better latency than 4G systems, allowing a higher density of mobile broadband users, with ‘multi-gigabit speeds in cityscape areas’ whilst also supporting the spread of advanced Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, in December 2016 Viva’s Kuwait-based rival Zain Group and Swedish equipment vendor Ericsson entered into a 5G research and development agreement, which will allow the two partners to evaluate performance and applicability of potential 5G key technology components.