Middle East-based mobile operator Ooredoo Group has selected CombaTelecom as its main supplier of antennas and associated products.
The multi-year deal could have a potential value of US$60 million. Ooredoo has mobile operations across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Comba will be supplying a large percentage of Ooredoo’s forecasted volume of base station antennas and associated ancillary products, such as jumpers, combiners, couplers and splitters. The deal covers up to ten geographic markets and the equipment will be used to enhance and expand Oredoo’s 2, 3, 4 and 5G networks.
According to Comba the Middle East and North Africa region is fast becoming the new hub for advanced mobile broadband networks. The vendor quotes an Ericsson estimate that the mobile broadband market in the Middle East could grow by almost 140% between 2016 and 2022, increasing from 1.1 billion to 2.6 billion connected users.
“This agreement enables us to deploy new antennas that will support the underlying enabling technologies such as higher order sectorisation, carrier addition, carrier aggregation and massive MIMO, as we upgrade our radio networks from 2G to 5G technology,” added Mr. Waleed Al Sayed, Ooredoo Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer