CRA approves amendments paving way for increased 5G bandwidth

Qatar’s Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, has approved amendments made by the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) to Annexure ‘G’ related to Network Rollout and Coverage Obligations, to enable the nation’s two mobile operators Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar to further improve the performance of their networks and the quality of services provided to consumers, in particular further facilitating the availability of 5G technology across Qatar. Under the amendments, the CRA will release additional spectrum for expanding and upgrading 5G networks in the 3.5GHz and 26GHz bands to Ooredoo and Vodafone ‘by 2023’, with total allocated spectrum bandwidth potentially reaching ‘up to 1000MHz’ depending on the service providers’ demands, The Peninsula reported. The amended licence obligations state that 5G networks must cover 99% of Qatar with minimum data speeds of 100Mbps by 2024.