KUWAIT: Ooredoo Group and Huawei, two of the world's leading digital enablers, yesterday announced a strategic partnership to make the Ooredoo Supernet fully 5G-enabled with the goal of enhancing people's digital lives across five countries - Kuwait, Oman, Indonesia, Tunisia and Maldives - over the next five years.

Ooredoo will leverage Huawei's world-leading 5G SingleRAN radio solution with advanced Massive MIMO technology, and 5G Cloud Core solution with a convergent platform to achieve a full digital transformation and modernization of its existing mobile networks. The network upgrade will provide customers with the latest 5G technologies and services.

5G services and devices have been launched earlier by Ooredoo in Kuwait in collaboration with Huawei. Currently, Ooredoo is speeding up the delivery of more network stations to be 5G-ready in Kuwait and Oman, which will offer about 100 times faster download speed than 4G networks. In 2020, Ooredoo will launch 5G commercial services in additional countries across the Ooredoo footprint.

Waleed Al Sayed, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer and CEO of Ooredoo Qatar, said: "With Huawei's leading 5G network solution, we will be able to improve our network's operation efficiency and provide limitless opportunities to our customers. Users will enjoy a more streamlined and personalized experience and businesses will be empowered to develop the smart, connected cities of the future."

Using Huawei's high-speed and low-latency 5G advanced technology, Ooredoo can meet growing data traffic demands, and deliver high-quality mobile broadband and fixed wireless experiences. Huawei will share global best practices in its multi-standard and single-architecture, which provides high 5G performance with the big capacity and the low energy consumption.

Ryan Ding, Executive Director of the Board and President of Carrier BG, Huawei, said: "It is our pleasure to cooperate with Ooredoo, the world's leading operator of 5G services. Through this strategic partnership, we will support Ooredoo to achieve high 5G performance services for consumers, households and vertical industries in line with our commitment to build a fully connected and intelligent world."

Saif Wang, President of Key Account Ooredoo at Huawei, said: "Our partnership with Ooredoo aims to enrich people's digital life in these five countries through our latest 5G innovation. 5G promises rich innovative services for the customers and provides more business opportunities to accelerate the digitization of industries. Huawei will continue to support Ooredoo to build a world-class infrastructure."