News

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.

Algar Telecom combined the 700 MHz and 1800 MHz bands to activate LTE-A in Uberlândia, city of Minas Gerais. The company promised speeds three times higher than those offered with traditional 4G although it recognized that the real speed will depend on factors such as the proximity of the antennas and the number of people connected to the same site, among others.

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.

SANTIAGO, June 29, 2017.- Nokia and Movistar Chile today held the first demonstration of 4.5G Pro in Latin America, reaching a speed of 1Gbps.

[Brasilia, Brazil, June 26, 2017] Recently, Claro Brazil launched the commercial 4.5G (4x4 MIMO+ Massive CA+256QAM) network in Brasilia in partnership with Huawei. The 4.5G network is the first network intended for commercial use in Brazil, and is expected to be the largest in the Latin America Region.

Brazilian operator Algar Telecom completed the refarming of the band from 1800 MHz to 4G, an idea that had been formalized by the end of 2015 . The 10 MHz previously saved for 2G were compressed at 5 MHz and the other half was used for LTE.

WND, the Latin American operator of Sigfox technology, begins the commercial operation of its IoT network in free frequency in August, with coverage of 50% of the population.

The results of the first quarter of 2017 confirm the validity of the transformation actions started by the management, which have brought significant recovery on the domestic market and in Brazil.

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.

Kuwait, 10th April 2017: VIVA, Kuwait's fastest-growing and most developed telecom operator, has successfully tested the fifth-generation "5G" in its lab and was able to achieve almost 35 Gbps. Being the first telecom company in Kuwait to try the unrivalled 5G, reflects its continuous commitment to its customers to deliver up-to-date technologies that meet their aspirations.

TIM, the leader in 4G coverage in the country, is the first operator in Brazil to use the frequency of 2600 MHz and refarm the 1800 MHz frequency band to 4G LTE. TIM is now ready to make the move to future-proofing its network using the 700 MHz spectrum band, which enables excellent indoor and rural area coverage for 4G-enabled devices.

Announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the roll out of the network comes six months after the trial of the LoRaWAN technology and will be released on a project-by-project basis.

Telstra together with Ericsson today announced the upcoming deployment of LTE-B enabled in Telstra Media services and continued investment for the national roll-out of LTE-B in 2017 and beyond.