Wireless Networks

State-owned telco Uzbektelecom, which operates as Uztelecom, announced on Thursday that it has launched its non-standalone (NSA) 5G network in all regional centres of Uzbekistan, and has teased plans to move ahead with 5G-Advanced technology soon.

Service provider Ooredoo Qatar has announced the successful completion of its trial of Wi-Fi 7 technology. The trial was completed on fibre-to-the-room (FTTR) devices for the first time in the region. The company plans to launch the technology in 2024.

At the IEEE PIMRC conference held on September 4, 2024, Dr. Tong Wen, Huawei Wireless CTO, presented his views on the development direction of the 6G industry. Titled “The Architectural Framework for A-RAN and A-Core”, Dr. Tong Wen noted “6G will not be a simple upgrade of 5G - it should integrate AI revolution for the past 20 months, so to reshape the wireless industry and take it to the next height.”

In what is claimed to be a first for Europe, service provider Vodafone and Czech power generation conglomerate ČEZ Group have introduced what they say is Europe's first private 5G mobile phone network (MPN) at a nuclear power plant – albeit in pilot form – in Temelin, a municipality and village in the south of the Czech Republic.

The World Health Organization found there is no link between brain and head cancer from use of mobile phones or being situated close to mobile towers.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel, MediaTek and Nokia announced on Monday they have completed a trial that successfully combined TDD and FDD mid-band spectrum to boost 5G uplink speeds as high as 300 Mbps.

Will Albania soon join the club of 5G-ready countries? Telecoms regulator AKEP has officially opened the competition for the first frequencies to be used for 5G. This will involve five blocks in the 3400-3800MHz frequency band – two of 80MHz and three of 40MHz.

Orange Liberia and ZTE said on Thursday they have successfully completed a project to build new base station sites in rural areas across the country that they say significantly enhances network coverage in those areas.

Bite Group has selected Nokia’s Packet Core appliance-based solution as it seeks to deploy advanced 5G services while simplifying its network architecture in Latvia and Lithuania.

Operator Claro Argentina and vendor Nokia have signed what is described as a comprehensive 5G deal through which Nokia will deploy 5G infrastructure across the country for Claro.

After a number of delays, the Colombian government’s plans to connect schools in isolated areas via Wi-Fi is apparently resuming.

Nokia has announced that it is further strengthening its partnership with 4G and 5G network-as-a-service (NaaS) operator Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) by building a 5G mobile core network.

Bhutan Telecom is deploying Ciena’s coherent routing solutions to support booming data traffic demands in the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Four out of Malaysia’s five mobile operators are officially in the running for the country’s second 5G network after submitting their bids to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Maxis and Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) announced on Monday they will establish a new innovation centre to develop 5G-Advanced solutions with a focus on use cases, customer experience, operating efficiencies and nurturing local talent.

Safaricom announced on Monday that its 5G network is now available in all 47 counties in Kenya, which it claims makes it the biggest 5G operator in the country, although the network still only covers just 14% of the population.

U Mobile has signed an MoU signed with Chinese vendor ZTE to collaborate on fast 5G deployment, with an eye on future evolution to 5G-Advanced, in the telco's latest play to become Malaysia's second 5G network operator. 

The Arab Organisation for Industrialisation (AOI) has announced this week the establishment of a mobile phone tower manufacturing facility in Egypt at the group's Aircraft Factory.

Chinese telecoms infrastructure firm China Tower says it has renewed multi-year framework deals with China Telecom and China Unicom to prepare for an expected surge in demand for IoT monitoring data and data analysis services related to its “Smart Tower” business segment.

Independent tower operator IHS Towers announced on Wednesday that its subsidiary in Nigeria has signed a deal with MTN Nigeria to renew and extend its tower master lease agreements until December 2032.

Indonesian telco Telkomsel says it has rolled out 49 new base stations to support 5G and 4G services in the country’s new capital of Nusantara (IKN), which would make it the only 5G service provider in the city when it’s officially inaugurated on August 17.

Telekom Indonesia’s telecoms infrastructure subsidiary Mitratel says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with high altitude platform station (HAPS) firm AALTO to look into providing commercial HAPS solutions in Indonesia.

Malaysian telco CelcomDigi officially submitted its proposal to build Malaysia’s second 5G network on Wednesday, while rival telco U Mobile has signed more MoUs – including a new financing deal – geared towards making its own case to be the new 5G operator.

Operator du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), in collaboration with Nokia and MediaTek, the world’s fifth largest global fabless semiconductor company, have announced what they describe as a major milestone in the integration and enhancement of 5G technologies in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).

Malaysian telcos CelcomDigi and U Mobile said on Tuesday they are collaborating with Chinese vendor ZTE to run a live TV broadcast during the upcoming 2024 Sukma Games using 5G-Advanced technology.

Small cells are back in the news again with an announcement that local vendor SAR Televenture is to deploy 4G small cell sites for Indian operator Vodafone Idea (aka Vi).

Indian telco Bharti Airtel announced on Monday that it has started refarming its existing 4G mid-band spectrum to support migration of 4G customers to 5G services, as well as its planned launch of standalone (SA) 5G.

Malaysian telco U Mobile said it has established a strategic backhaul partnership with Time dotCom as it continues its preparations to help build the country’s planned second 5G network.

Costa Rican company Radiografica Costarricense SA (RACSA, a Grupo ICE company) has claimed a 5G first in the country with the launch of 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services on the market, supported, it says, by the country's first and only network designed for this technology.

Ericsson and Etisalat’s e& United Arab Emirates (UAE) say they have successfully conducted end-to-end verification of RedCap software on e&’s 5G Standalone (5G SA) network, which will enable it to support IoT devices as it evolves to 5G Advanced.

Rijeka Gateway has announced a 5G standalone (SA) connectivity partnership with Croatian telecommunications company Hrvatski Telekom (HT), involving the adoption of what is described as a next-level private 5G campus network.