His Excellency Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti, Minister of Transport and Communications, has approved the amendment of the network rollout and coverage obligations of Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar licenses, for the provision of public mobile telecommunications networks and services.
The amendments adopted unified obligations for both companies related to the Second Generation (2G), Third Generation (3G) and Forth Generation (4G) networks, that is in accordance with the amendments of the Annexure (G), of the network rollout and coverage obligations of both companies licenses related to public mobile telecommunications networks and services.
Also, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has issued decisions to grant the radio spectrum licenses to both companies for the deployment of the Fifth Generation (5G) commercial networks in Qatar as of the beginning of January 2019. In addition to that, CRA has unified all prior existing radio spectrum licenses and replaced it with a single document "Radio Spectrum License” that includes harmonized terms and conditions for both companies. In the mentioned radio spectrum licenses, CRA has initially assigned to each company 100 MHz within the 3500 - 3800 MHz frequency band for the commercial deployment of 5G networks.
Under the radio spectrum licenses, the two companies will be committed to rollout the 5G networks before the end of 2020 in all densely populated areas, all primary roads and highways as well as all venues associated with FIFFA 2022 World Cup including stadiums and fan zones. "Unifying the obligations of telecommunications companies for the 2G, 3G and 4G networks is a very important step towards the development of a sustainable and fair competition in the telecom market in Qatar. This will benefit the sector and consumers at the same time, as the companies are keen to provide competitive, innovative and high quality services, and that will contribute to the development of the Information and Communications (ICT) sector in the State of Qatar,” said H.E. Jassim Saif Ahmed Al-Sulaiti, Minister of Transport and Communications.
"CRA was keen to facilitate the introduction of 5G technology to the State of Qatar, and to assign the necessary frequencies to telecommunications companies in Qatar. Qatar will be one of the first countries in the world to launch 5G commercial services, which undoubtedly will contribute to the achievement of Qatar National Vision 2030 goals by ensuring the sustainable development of the ICT sector. On behalf of the CRA, I would like to thank all stakeholders and telecommunications companies for their cooperation and efforts to contribute to the development of the sector,” said His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al-Mannai, President of CRA.
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