Progresif Cellular announced today that they have submitted an official request to start a trial of their 4G network.
The application was filed with the Authority for Info-Communications Technology Industry (AITI) which kicks off a process, that subject to AITI approval, could bring Progresif’s first 4G cell sites online within the next three months.
Devin Edwards, Chief Marketing Officer at Progresif, stated “This is a significant milestone for Progresif as the trial will kickstart a major network development initiative which will drastically improve coverage and bring 4G speeds and a suite of enhanced services to our customers over the next year.”
“Activating our 4G network provides the foundation to bring greater innovation, data rich applications, enhanced multimedia services and helps to deepen our investment in education and entrepreneurship,” he said.
Over the past two years, Progresif has invested over $20 million to enhance and expand their network. As of today, the effort has resulted in a near doubling of the number of cell sites with another significant coverage expansion effort in process in preparation for a full 4G launch.
Peter Rubeck, Progresif’s Chief Technology Officer said, “Customers on our network have grown from only 20,000 to more than 150,000 subscribers over the last two years. This has required us to build and expand our coverage and capacity to keep up with demand.”
“The next phase of development will prepare for 4G by drastically improving areas where we have limited coverage or congestion because of high volumes of traffic,” he said.
A 4G network is not just about having increased speeds for end users. A study conducted by the multinational professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicted a global ‘burst of innovation’ that would be facilitated by the expansion of 4G networks which was not as prominent when network operators moved from 2G to 3G.
According to PwC, innovation coming from 4G would spawn new use cases involving proprietary and third party multimedia applications including, streaming video and TV content from the cloud, mobile gaming, mobile video conferencing and voice over IP with minimal latency.
With the higher bandwidth and lower latency, 4G has the capability to drive data-heavy industries and support the proliferation of upcoming devices with new applications such as virtual and augmented reality. A 4G network could support new applications such as remote monitoring, big data enabled applications and medical diagnosis when paired with improved imaging sensors and advanced computing.
The move into a 4G network is also in line with the call for a more connected country by His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, The Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
Progresif Marketing Communications Manager, Hafiza Mohamad stated “As a progressive communications company, Progresif is already developing innovative 4G based services which enrich the use of communications to greatly benefit our customers and the economy of Brunei.