50 Ooredoo 5G network towers now live

Ooredoo has announced that the first commercial 5G network in the world has now reached 50 sites in Qatar. 

Since Ooredoo announced it was the first operator in the world to launch a 5G network commercially in May, the company has invested heavily in rolling out the next-generation technology to ensure that Qatar is at the forefront of 5G developments and the 5G ecosystem.Thanks to this latest milestone, some of Qatar’s most populated areas in Doha are now 5G-enabled, which means a "huge number of Ooredoo customers and businesses will be able to instantly access the 5G network when devices become available", the company has said in a statement. As well as investing in the 5G rollout, Ooredoo has said it is thoroughly testing a batch of the first-ever live 5G home broadband devices.The 25 devices in Qatar are being tested on Ooredoo’s 5G network to ensure the performance is seamless in various use-cases before being made available to customers.So far, the company has announced the new 5G home broadband devices will work on both the Ooredoo 4G and 5G network and can achieve speeds of up to 2Gbps, 20 times the speeds of Ooredoo’s 100Mbps fibre. Ooredoo Qatar CEO Waleed al-Sayed said, “As the countdown to 2022 has begun, we need to ensure that Qatar is ready ahead of time, in all sectors. As a proud Qatari company, we are preparing our network now so that it can seamlessly serve our country and people, and the thousands of expected visitors. “5G will enable our customers to download movies in seconds, stream VR gaming experiences like never before and open up a world of smart technology. We’re working tirelessly to reach the 100 5G sites milestone, and are pushing the 5G home broadband device to its limit to make sure it's 5G-ready and Qatar-worthy.”Ooredoo’s 5G network rollout will have a "hugely positive impact on many business sectors and organisations in Qatar", the statement notes. Most noticeably, 5G serves as the next step in network evolution as it has much higher speeds and capacity, and extreme low latency, the company adds. Ooredoo 5G will enable new types of applications like driverless cars and smart roads, the connection of millions of low-powered connected devices, Augmented Reality and more.Due to worldwide manufacturing limitations, Ooredoo’s 5G Supernet network is not yet accessible by smartphones; however, the company has said it is working to rapidly roll out its state-of-the-art network so that consumers and businesses across Qatar can instantly benefit as soon as compatible devices are made available. Ooredoo welcomes device manufacturers and developers of 5G use cases to Qatar so that arrangements can be made for them to test against the world’s first, deployed, commercial 5G network.