As Oman gears itself up for the launch of 5G, Ooredoo’s Chief Executive Officer, Ian Dench, joined government stakeholders and operators at a special ‘5G Roadmap’ event organised by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). The event discussed the Sultanate’s planned 5G rollout, highlighting important investment and legislative developments already underway, as well as the readiness of operators to launch the super-speed network commercially.
Ian Dench said, “We are very excited to be driving 5G implementation in Oman. Working with the TRA and other government and private sector entities to deliver 5G, we’ll be taking the Sultanate’s technology to the next level. Together with all of our partners, we have made great progress in our journey towards the connected world of tomorrow.”
Ooredoo has been preparing for the transition to 5G wireless technology since 2017, recently rolling out operational trials, demonstrations, and experience zones at stores in Muscat and Salalah. Laying the groundwork, Ooredoo has already updated several of its Home Internet locations across the country with Massive Multiple-input and Multiple-Output (Massive MiMO) technology and put in place a number of base stations, ready to transmit and receive 5G data.
Ahmed Al Abri, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Ooredoo, added, “We have already completed end to end testing of many sites and had customer showcases in our MGM and Salalah stores. The demos were a huge success and have paved the way for a full commercial launch in the coming years based on demand and our customers’ satisfaction.”
Considered the “ultimate network”, 5G promises to dramatically increase the speed at which data is transferred across the network to 100 times faster than cellular connection and 10 times faster than the speediest home broadband service. Through its combination of speed, responsiveness and reach, it will also pave the way for other new technologies such as autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things, effectively changing peoples’ digital lives by connecting everything around them.