Ooredoo Qatar has announced that it deployed its tenth base station equipped with ‘5G-ready’ technology over the weekend, reports Gulf Times. The company added that it has already started reducing the latency of its network towards 1ms – the baseline 5G standard specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), whilst ensuring that it has sufficient capacity via fibre network upgrades including linking base stations with GPON direct fibre technology. Ooredoo also continues to test 5G equipment, software, and spectrum requirements leading up to the standardisation of 5G technology (expected towards the end of 2017), after which network technology partners and handset/other device manufacturers will launch their commercial 5G offerings.
Ooredoo Qatar CEO Waleed Mohamed al-Sayed said: ‘We hope to have 5G speeds available by the end of the year and we’re already looking to collaborate with partners to ensure that a full range of 5G-ready devices and smartphones will be available for Ooredoo customers in Qatar.’