Qatar’s Ooredoo Group today announced at Mobile World Congress that it has strengthened its framework agreement with global technology partner Nokia to pave the way for 5G adoption across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. In line with the Group’s network modernisation programme ‘Evolution to 5G’, Ooredoo and Nokia will collaborate on 5G deployments starting in 2018 in Qatar, aiming to roll out services nationwide at an accelerated pace, following the earlier announcement this week of acquiring both 5G spectrum and 5G New Radio (NR) commercial equipment for business customers.
Waleed Al-Sayed, CEO of Ooredoo Qatar and deputy CEO at Ooredoo Group, said: ‘In strengthening our partnership with Nokia, Ooredoo Group will pioneer 5G innovations to deliver superior mobile data experiences for our customers. 5G will catalyse mobility, industrial networking, remote healthcare, virtual reality, and ultra-high-definition video, and enhance our customers’ digital experience and help them enjoy the Internet in new and exciting ways.’ The company said the 5G rollout will also support Smart Cities and Smart Stadiums projects in Qatar.
Ooredoo is leveraging Nokia’s commercially-available ‘5G-ready’ products, such as the AirScale radio platform and 5G Adaptive Antenna System based on 3GPP Rel. 15 New Radio. Amr K. El Leithy, Head of Middle East and Africa Market for Nokia, said: ‘We have worked with Ooredoo Group on many path-breaking projects, and the current framework agreement facilitates us to continue to collaborate for transforming the group’s networks across its operations in various countries.’