Ooredoo, Nokia showcase 5G potential for Qatar

Ooredoo and Nokia have showcased the potential of 5G services on the Ooredoo Supernet with a live demonstration of 5G-enabled robotics at Ooredoo’s HQ1 headquarters in Doha for Qatar National Day.

Present at the demonstration were HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, chairman of Ooredoo Group; Waleed Mohamed Ebrahim al-Sayed, CEO, Ooredoo Qatar; and Yousuf Abdulla al-Kubaisi, COO, Ooredoo Qatar.

The demonstration recorded the advanced performance of 5G on the Ooredoo Supernet by programming three industrial robots to complete the simple task of balancing a ball on a platform and connecting them via 5G, according to a press statement.

The robots took just a fraction of the second to find a balance point, significantly faster and more smoothly than when they used a 4G network.

Most importantly, as a result of the 5G network’s low latency and high speeds, the robots were able to communicate with each other in real time to complete the task, the statement noted.

“This demonstration shows not only the speed and latency of 5G networks, but also the types of solutions and technology that will become available in Qatar as we become a truly ‘smart nation’,” al-Sayed said.

The demonstration used 400 MHz bandwidth in the 4.5 GHZ frequency and Multiple Input Multiple Output (8x8 MIMO) technology, supported by eight receiving antennas and eight transmitting antennas to improve network speed and capacity.

Ricardo Silva, head of Mobile Networks Product Portfolio Sales, MEA, Nokia, said: “We are ready to support them (Ooredoo) with our latest multi-standard 5G-ready Nokia AirScale radio as well as our smart city and IoT solutions.”

The successful trial provided an example of the role 5G will play in building a knowledge-based economy for Qatar, enabling significant automation and supporting the deployment of enhanced Internet of Things solutions, the statement adds.

Applications being studied by Ooredoo included augmented reality, virtual reality, e-education, e-health, industrial applications, machine-to-machine communications and ‘smart city’ technology.

Customers can see the 5G test on Ooredoo’s website, social media pages and at Ooredoo shops across the country on Qatar National Day, which will screen a special video of the demonstration.

The video also shows the possible future speeds for customers, with Ooredoo and Nokia’s 5G technology delivering “extreme” broadband speeds of 10Gbps and reduced latency of just one millisecond.