Ooredoo Qatar has claimed a global first live deployment of Ericsson’s ‘4+0’ carrier aggregation microwave hops, promising a two-fold backhaul network capacity improvement that will enhance connectivity and 5G user experience as Qatar gears up to host football’s World Cup in November. The latest high-capacity MINI-LINK backhaul solution is aimed at handling the expected surge in users and connected devices during the tournament, while also reducing power consumption and equipment footprint. The first phase of deployment was completed in the first quarter of 2022, with further rollouts planned for Q2 and Q3.
Gunther Ottendorfer, CTO at Ooredoo Qatar, said: ‘Our latest collaboration with Ericsson on deploying 4+0 MINI-LINK carrier aggregation will enhance 5G user experience across stadiums in the country and will seamlessly bring high-capacity connectivity to users at sports events in Qatar.’ Kevin Murphy, Head of Levant Countries and Global Customer Unit Ooredoo Group at Ericsson Middle East & Africa, added: ‘Deploying MINI-LINK carrier aggregation 4+0 links will enable a much faster and reliable deployment of 5G for Ooredoo Qatar while also facilitating several new and exciting use cases throughout the event season.’