Vodafone is looking to revolutionise various industries in Qatar to help create smart farms and cities, as well as world-class transportation and sports services using 5G technology via its global expertise, a company official has said.
Chief operating officer Diego Camberos stressed that Vodafone Qatar “is ahead of the global trend” in the utilising 5G technology. He noted that Vodafone Qatar is working with different local partners in the public and private sectors to maximise the use of 5G in different projects.
“We’re leveraging on a lot of the Vodafone global expertise, so all of these are being done somewhere already. We’re bringing our global expertise to Qatar to work with local farmers and local companies to connect them with 5G technology. We’re in the middle of all these developments.
“There are also different projects where we will be discussing about how we can provide, for example, smart cities to Qatar, which is part of a bigger picture and not just Vodafone and some of its partners. There are actually some ongoing projects from the Qatari government that we’re already part of, so this future is coming very, very soon,” Camberos told Gulf Times on the sidelines of Vodafone Qatar’s 5G launching held Monday in Doha.
Asked to provide a timeline for the use of 5G technology in Qatar’s industries, Camberos said: “Driverless cars are a reality today, and you might be surprised how fast things like that will be around here; even as prototypes because a driverless vehicle needs 5G, so when you have that technology, it becomes easier. I think we’ll all be surprised how fast we can have this in the country.”
On Tuesday, Vodafone Qatar announced that it is the first service provider in the country to connect a customer to 5G. This came a day after the company’s official 5G launch ceremony at the Qatar National Convention Centre.
Camberos, responding to a question on Vodafone Qatar’s global position amongst other telecommunications companies, said: “We’re lucky that we’re the first one in the world to do it, as a company and as a country. We are ahead of the trend. And in the Vodafone way, we’re the first ones. And as a country, we’re the first ones and we should be proud of it.”
“We’re ahead of the global trend; if there’s a need for the customers then we’re going to do it…we already have a roadmap and this 5G launch event is the kick-off of that plan,” he continued.
Camberos said Vodafone is working with different vendors such as Huawei, whom he said, is “are ahead of developing 5G-related equipment such as handsets, among others.”
“Whoever comes first, we will get the devices but Huawei is bringing the CPE, which is a router. Today, there are no handsets yet available in the world. If the smartphones are available, our network will be ready to deliver that.
“Today, we have live 5G network and working devices available in the market, which is the CPE. We’re waiting for other manufacturers like Huawei and others to deliver the handsets, and then we will be ready. But today, we are the first network to have a live network in Qatar,” he explained.
