News

Espoo, Finland - Nokia is set to bring 5G to New Zealand, following the announcement of the first commercial 5G network available to New Zealanders by Vodafone New Zealand.

Vodafone today announced it will take its first step into New Zealand’s 5G future and switch on a 5G network in December, starting in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.  The launch announcement coincides with today’s completion of the sale of Vodafone New Zealand to Brookfield and Infratil, and follows Vodafone’s recent rollout of 5G in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Germa

The call was conducted over 3.6GHz spectrum using Ericsson’s Baseband 6630, Radio AIR6488 and a 5G SA device based on a MediaTek chipset.

This milestone follows Ericsson’s recent announcement of cutting-edge Standalone (SA) New Radio (NR) software that enables super-fast response times and new capabilities to rapidly extend 5G coverage.

Doha, 23 April 2019: Vodafone Qatar continues its leadership in driving digital innovation with news that it is making 5G technology commercially available with the  launch of its latest innovation- Vodafone GigaHome- the new home internet solution.  

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has been selected by Batelco to commercially deploy 5G to enhance the digital lives of people, enterprises and industries across Bahrain. The nationwide 5G deployment will happen in phases in key locations.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) organized a live 5G demonstration at Maroc Telecomheadquarters in Rabat, Morocco today showcasing the capabilities of the next-generation mobile technology.  

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) have signed a deal to launch a mid-band 5G network in Saudi Arabia. The deal was announced at a signing ceremony at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona.

DUBAI, UAE – Feb. 19, 2019 – UAE-based telco du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), along with Nokia, Affirmed Networks and MediaTek today announced the launch of next generation Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network in the United Arab Emirates based on the latest 3GPP Release 14 standard.

Spark announced today that it has completed a nationwide rollout of its Internet of Things (IoT) cellular (Cat-M1) network. Spark is the first company to confirm the nationwide completion of a Cat-M1 network in New Zealand.

The network covers 98% of New Zealand’s population and has been deployed since September on over 96% of Spark’s mobile sites.

Following the successful and first commercial pilot of 5G technology in the Kingdom in June 2018, VIVA Bahrain, the leading telecommunication provider in Bahrain, announced the completion of 5G readiness in key locations across Bahrain. VIVA Bahrain is now the first operator in the Kingdom to enable adoption of 5G service and is planning further roll-outs of 5G across the country.

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Nokia and Zain KSA have started a massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) pilot in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on the TD-LTE network using 2.6 GHz spectrum.

Optus today revealed the first details of its game changing 5G Home Broadband service which is underpinned by a plan to deliver 1,200 5G sites by March 2020.

In partnership with Nokia, who are supplying the 5G RAN and Fastmile 5G CPEs, Optus 5G sites are now live in two suburbs in Canberra, with an additional site live in Sydney and 47 more sites planned to be online by March 2019.

Optus has taken another significant step towards its commercial launch of 5G today by making a 5G data call on 60 MHz using 3.5 GHz spectrum.

The call, made as part of pre-launch testing, was made from an Optus 5G site in Dickson, Canberra utilising a commercial grade 5G Radio Network and customer premises equipment (CPE) developed in partnership with Nokia.

The Qatari Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti has approved the amendment of the network rollout and coverage obligations of Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar licences for the provision of public mobile telecommunications networks and services.

At 00:40 Beijing time on December 11, 2017, the Alcomsat-1 Communications satellite was successfully launched for Algeria from Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) aboard a Long March-3B launch vehicle.

Ooredoo Tunisia and Sagemcom have just launched the first Tunisian Internet of Things (IoT) network, based on LoRa™ technology. The network enables devices to exchange small amounts of data, with a standard battery providing independent battery life of up to 10 years.

Doha, Qatar – Gaza, Palestine

As part of its continuous efforts to improve and enhance its services in the markets where it operates, Ooredoo Group has announced that its operating company in Palestine, Wataniya Mobile, has officially launched its operations in Gaza.

Vodafone Australia today announced the next stage of deployment of its commercial Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, making it the first Australian telco to launch commercial NB-IoT services.

Vodafone has taken the next steps in the advancement of its mobile network performance by successfully conducting its first field demonstration of Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) using a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) band.

Optus has announced the successful live network testing of combined Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and 3CC Carrier Aggregation technologies, 3CC Massive MIMO.

The network trial, conducted on live traffic at Macquarie Park in June 2017, attained a highest speed of 818 Mbps. It was completed with technology partner Huawei.

Kuwait, September 11, 2017: Zain Group, the leading mobile telecommunications provider in the Middle East and North Africa, announces that it has successfully tested 5G technology achieving maximum throughput speeds of over 70 Gbps over 2 GHz spectrum.

Minister of Communications and Technology Dr. Ali Al-Zafair held a press conference in the presence of Dr. Abdullah Al-Gharbi, Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, and Mr. Ziad Sebh, Managing Director of MTN Syria and Mrs. Magda Saqr, General Manager of Syriatel.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has become a member of a consortium led by the operator Zain in Kuwait. The consortium will carry out a large digital transformation project for local utilities. The project will be completed by 2024 and as the sole technology partner, Ericsson will deploy a new smart metering solution.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel signed an agreement on Wednesday that would allow Palestinian mobile service providers to offer 3G services to their Palestinian customers.

Australia's largest mobile carrier has switched on Cat M1 on its 4GX footprint in an effort to boost IoT uptake on its network.

Optus is spending $1 billion building 500 new mobile base stations around regional Australia to compete better against Telstra and Vodafone. 

VIVA Bahrain, the innovative telecom operator and credited with the widest 4G network coverage in the Kingdom, has unlocked a host of new advanced LTE capabilities, paving the way towards 5G services.

MTN Syria today announced that it has launched the pilot phase of the service of 4G LTE in Syria in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Technology, in a move which enhances MTN of outstanding services and products offered by the Syrian market, providing a sophisticated and fast Internet service and in line with the orientation of the leadership in the digital world.

Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announces its consolidated financial results for the first quarter (Q1) ending 31 March 2017. Zain served 46.1 million customers at the end of the period, reflecting a 1.4% increase year-on-year (Y-o-Y).

Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) is pleased to have acquired 2 x 5MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band auction, for the reserve price of $286 million. This is $1.25 per MHz, per head of population. The acquisition is on the same terms VHA proposed to government in 2015.