Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), the Sultanate’s incumbent telecoms operator, has revealed that its network is ready for the launch of 5G services, although consumers will have to wait for compatible handsets to become commercially available before they can benefit from the technology. ‘We are ready from the network perspective, but individual mobile phones are not. For example, if you go to some of the areas, you may find 5G appearing as a network, but you will not be able to pick it up from your mobile as it does not yet support this feature,’ Times of Oman quotes Ali Al Hashmi, Omantel’s Senior Manager of Network Design, as saying.
In November 2017 Omantel and Ericsson conducted a live 5G showcase in a real-world environment, including tests on speed, mobility and latency. The 5G showcase, which used advanced 5G features such as beamforming and beam tracking, was the first in a series of trials that Omantel and Ericsson agreed to conduct to prepare the network for the 5G evolution.