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Vodafone Qatar taps Nokia for massive network upgrade

The partnership between Vodafone Qatar and Nokia will support a broad transformation of the operator’s infrastructure

In sum – what you need to know:

Nationwide 5G modernization – Vodafone Qatar will upgrade its entire network with Nokia’s technology to deliver faster, more agile and secure 5G services.

Next-Gen ready infrastructure – The deal enables low-latency performance, 5G slicing for enterprise, automation and future-ready broadband capabilities.

Qatar Vision 2030 alignment – The partnership supports Qatar’s national strategy to accelerate digital transformation across sectors amid projected ICT growth of 8.5% annually.

Vodafone Qatar has signed an agreement with Nokia with the aim of implementing a nationwide network modernization initiativee, a move that will enhance the speed, security and agility of its 5G services for both consumers and businesses. The collaboration is also aimed at preparing Vodafone’s infrastructure for the next wave of digital innovation, the telco said.

As part of the initiative, Vodafone Qatar will adopt Nokia’s comprehensive technology solutions to significantly increase network capacity, lower latency and reduce time-to-market for new offerings. The modernization project will incorporate automation and heightened security protocols to improve operational responsiveness and support rapid service evolution, the telco added.

With the country’s ICT sector expected to grow by 8.5% annually through 2030, this initiative will also help Vodafone Qatar to position itself to meet the growing demand for high-performance connectivity within Qatar’s expanding digital economy.

The partnership between Vodafone Qatar and Nokia will support a broad transformation of the operator’s infrastructure — from smarter broadband access to new enterprise services enabled by 5G slicing — while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to fast-changing application requirements, it added.

Hamad Abdulla Jassim Al-Thani, chief executive officer at Vodafone Qatar, said: ‘Vodafone Qatar continuously embraces new opportunities to deploy emerging technologies as part of its commitment to driving digital transformation in Qatar, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. Our work with Nokia will enable us to become more agile and responsive to the evolving needs of customers and businesses. By integrating advanced fiber, mobile and cloud capabilities, we are shaping a smarter, more secure network that can support everything from customi[z]ed home Wi-Fi to the latest enterprise technologies.”

Qatar National Vision 2030 is a strategic framework launched by the State of Qatar in 2008 to transform the country into an advanced, sustainable society capable of achieving development and ensuring a high standard of living for future generations.

“This collaboration reflects the depth of our portfolio and the strength of our partnership with Vodafone Qatar,” commented Raghav Sahgal, Nokia’s president of cloud and network services. “Through more flexible scaling, reliability and near zero-touch automation that our advanced core and broadband solutions deliver, Nokia will provide greater network agility and service offerings, and provide our partner with all the tools it needs to efficiently manage its network assets.”

The deployment will feature Nokia’s multi-cloud core software, enabling enhanced service agility and network optimization. These capabilities are expected to provide Vodafone Qatar with the tools necessary to support everything from personalized consumer services to sophisticated enterprise applications.

Last year, Vodafone Qatar said it had successfully verified 6 GHz spectrum using 128 T/R massive MIMO, , achieving user speeds exceeding 10 Gbps by aggregating four 100 MHz carriers.

The telco noted that this trial, which was part of Vodafone Qatar’s phase-two trial on 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technologies, showcased the 5G-A capabilities on the 6 GHz upper mid-band spectrum.

Through these trials, Vodafone Qatar’s sites can potentially have a system capacity of up to 30 Gbps, the telco said. The telco also achieved over 1 Gbps uplink user speeds during the trial which is essential in supporting use cases of live 8k streaming.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro covers Global Carriers and Global Enterprise IoT. Prior to RCR, Juan Pedro worked for Business News Americas, covering telecoms and IT news in the Latin American markets. He also worked for Telecompaper as their Regional Editor for Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Juan Pedro has also contributed to Latin Trade magazine as the publication's correspondent in Argentina and with political risk consultancy firm Exclusive Analysis, writing reports and providing political and economic information from certain Latin American markets. He has a degree in International Relations and a master in Journalism and is married with two kids.