VIVA Bahrain gears up for 5G operations
MANAMA, June 9, 2018
VIVA Bahrain, a leading telecom services operator in the kingdom, has launched the first live and public 5G network demonstration in the kingdom ahead of its deployment at homes and businesses in co-ordination with a number of 5G-enabled devices.
The launch was held at City Centre Bahrain's Central Galleria in the presence of Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohamed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Shaikh Hisham Bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, Capital Governor, Dr Mohammed Alamer, TRA Chairman, Shaikh Nasir Al Khalifa, TRA Managing Director and Mohammed Al Qaed, iGA CEO.
As an industry first, the milestone reinforces Bahrain’s leading digital position in the region, and enhances Bahrain’s readiness for next generation technologies in support of Bahrain Vision 2030, said a statement from Viva.
During the live 5G speed test, the telecom company also achieved unprecedented gigabit speeds reaching up to 1.5 Gbps using a commercial broadband router, opening doors to a new era of sophisticated technologies enabled by reliably fast data speeds.
At the scene, VIVA Bahrain showcased the life-changing speeds and capabilities of VIVA 5G for homes and businesses with a number of 5G-enabled devices available for public trial such as 4K UHD TV, Virtual Reality (VR) goggles.
Addressing the gathering, Kamal bin Ahmed said that this latest development in Bahrain’s telecommunications industry represents a major milestone.
"We have put in place a solid infrastructure for the growth of the sector and are benchmarking ourselves against some of the global leaders in telecoms in order to achieve even more," said the minister.
"We are in the middle of implementing our 4th National Telecommunications Plan and I am happy to see VIVA taking the initiative by capitalizing on this infrastructure and expanding its services to provide users with the latest technologies," he added.
Engineer Abdulla Zmami, VIVA Bahrain Chairman said this step reconfirms the group's genuine commitment to accelerate Bahrain’s digitization and continuous effort to introduce the latest technologies to the people of Bahrain.
"This links back to VIVA`s core vision in transforming Bahrain’s telecommunication landscape and offer an unprecedented telecom experience to the community" he noted.
Viva Bahrain CEO Ulaiyan Al Wetaid said the aim of the live launch was to allow the public to get a feeling of what 5G technology brings to our life.
"This is a major turning point for Bahrain. We’re closer to unlocking the transformative opportunities of 5G and the powerful cross-industry solutions being tested at VIVA`s Innovation Center that will benefit all key growth sectors including health, education, transportation and much more," he noted.
According to him, the 5G network is expected to make a quantum leap in future services and applications and will contribute in increasing the speed and performance of wireless networks.
"It will not only improve the connectivity between people and their phones or computers, but will also enable more sophisticated technologies such as IOT, Artificial Intelligence and robots," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
