The Finnish vendor also secured a deal for the deployment of its IoT platform in Egypt
BARCELONA- Nokia and Telecom Egypt have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to introduce 5G network infrastructure and test use cases in Egypt.
Under this agreement, signed during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, both companies agreed to collaborate on 5G deployment as well as the evaluation of appropriate use cases of the technology in the Egyptian market.
Adel Hamed, managing director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, said: “We are delighted to sign this MoU with our strategic partner Nokia which paves the way for the development of 5G use cases in Egypt. This MoU marks a new chapter of the partnership between the two companies as it will allow our company to support the realization of the digital transformation strategy in Egypt.”
Amr El Leithy, head of the Middle East and Africa market at Nokia, said: “This MoU is part of the long-term strategic partnership between the two companies. 5G solutions will allow Telecom Egypt to proactively address the increasing data traffic, create new revenue streams as well as continue working on the improvement of customer experience”.
Nokia and Telecom Egypt are working together to deploy 5G network with Nokia’s end-to-end 5G solutions.
Nokia and Telecom Egypt also announced they will build what it claims to be the first cloud infrastructure in Egypt exclusively for the provision of internet of things (IoT) services. Telecom Egypt will use Nokia’s Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) as a Service as the platform to launch IoT services for the enterprise segment later this year.
As part of an agreement, Nokia and Telecom Egypt will also explore joint marketing initiatives and will work to accelerate the development of an IoT partner ecosystem in the country. A number of IoT use cases drive automation, which will help enterprises cut their operational expenses, enhance productivity and bring new services to market faster.
Rain launches 5G network in Cape Town using Nokia’s solutions
Also during MWC 2019, Nokia and South African operator rain announced the launch of the country’s first commercial-ready 5G network in Cape Town, following the deployment of the first 5G site last November.
In addition, Nokia and rain have agreed to collaborate on deploying the 5G network with Nokia’s end-to-end 5G solutions including optical fronthaul transport products and its Fixed Wireless Access FastMile 5G Gateway. Nokia’s FastMile 5G Gateway is a home solution that brings high speeds to homes using 3GPP compliant 5G New Radio.
The rollout will continue through 2020 to extend the network to more areas across South Africa. Later this year the network will also support a variety of 5G use cases when commercial 5G end-user devices become available.
Rain is also working with Chinese vendor Huawei in its 5G network deployment in the country. The Chinese vendor recently said that the first 5G base stations are already live in certain areas of Johannesburg.
