Ooredoo Qatar - Innovation in Technology Development
Company: Ooredoo Qatar
Entry Submitted By: FTI Consulting (Singapore)
Company Description: Ooredoo Group is a leading international telecommunications company that operates businesses and serves consumers in 10 countries, delivering a leading data experience through its broad range of content and services and advanced, data-centric mobile and fixed networks.
Nomination Category: Technology Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for the Innovation in Technology Development - Telecommunications Industries
Nomination Title: Ooredoo Qatar - 5G and smart cities
Ooredoo Qatar is the flagship operator of Ooredoo Group, the international telecommunications company committed to driving network innovation across its portfolio.
Taking an early global lead in 5G, in 2018 Ooredoo was the first operator to commercially launch 5G in its home market Qatar. Ooredoo Qatar opened mobile access to its 5G network for compatible smartphone users in 2019 with 100 live 5G base stations in Doha. Several thousandsites have now been upgraded across Qatar and, as of September 2020, Ooredoo Qatar’s 5G network covers an extensive 90% of populated areas in Qatar.
Ooredoo Qatar has recorded multiple industry milestones in accelerating 5G transformation and introducing innovative solutions:
-Ooredoo Qatar and Ericsson have successfully trialed 200MHz mid-band spectrum and achieved a record system throughput of 4.2 Gbps using the latest Ericsson Radio System products.
-Ooredoo Qatar announced that more than 200,000 customers have signed up for its recently launched Shahry 5G and Qatarna 5G plans. Since February 2020 there have been four consumer Shahry 5G voice/data/messaging packs. The packages include unlimited data at unrestricted speeds and the addition of sports content via the BeIN Connect service.
-A 5G bus experience in Pearl Qatar, where the speed of Ooredoo’s network was demonstrated through a dashboard in a moving bus, achieving speeds of 2.6Gbps in the presence of several journalists and prominent individuals.
-The successful testing of its live 5G home/office broadband devices for which the first results of rigorous stress-tests achieved super-fast speeds between 600 Mbps and 2 Gbps – 20 times the speeds of Ooredoo’s 100Mbps fiber.
Today, Ooredoo is pioneering various innovative 5G use-cases with the potential to transform key industries including sports, healthcare and transportation. These innovations leverage the higher capacity and lower latency of Ooredoo’s 5G network to usher in a new era of urban living, e.g.:
-Self-driving aerial taxis: drone-like vehicles that can transport two people up to 20-minutes away at 130Km/h
-5G-Connected ambulance that enables remote patient treatment
-Advanced smart stadium technologies that offer a unique immersive and completely personalised viewing experience for fans by combining VR, user engagement and enhanced interaction
-A futuristic 8K VR experience on a modern House Boat, which offers a seamless ultra-realistic gaming experience
-Virtual stores offering a 360-degree online retail experience
Ooredoo is also making significant contributions toward R&D in 5G technology, particularly around its applications in smart city development, for example:
-At Qatar’s 2019 Emir Cup, Ooredoo tested its 5G-powered smart stadium technologies, equipped with intelligent autonomous drones, HD cameras and streaming capabilities. Ooredoo demonstrated the future of 5G with Ericsson through a Virtual Stadium at the Mall of Qatar, and a 5G-Connected Ambulance in the stadium itself. To demonstrate an immersive sports experience, 12 + 1x360° cameras were installed in the stadium.
-Ooredoo is partnering with the Qatar Government to develop Lusail, Qatar’s first-ever planned smart city. It leverages 5G infrastructure to enable real-time insights on Lusail Light Rail’s performance, provide state-of-the-art security for critical national infrastructure and support smart transport innovations both in-station and via apps.
The success of Ooredoo’s innovation is evident through the global recognition Ooredoo earned for its 5G leadership, evident at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, where it showcased an experiential VR demo of its flying taxi among other technology demonstrations, attracting a record number of executives at its booth.
Additionally, as a testament to the success of its well-executed 5G roll-out, a report by Arthur D. Little noted that Ooredoo’s 5G pilot projects have driven Qatar to be ranked among the world’s top five 5G-leading countries globally. Recently, Ooredoo was recognised among world’s top 50 telecoms brands for the fourth year in a row, partly due to a series of initatives in 5G.