High speed 5G mobile internet in Oman soon?

Chinese technology firm Huawei is in the process of launching 5G in Oman, according to an official at Huawei Oman.

5G stands for fifth generation telecommunications standard that will succeed 4G services for faster mobile communications.

Chief Executive Officer Leo Hong said although the technology will take time to be implemented, Huawei aims to start the process soon.

“We are also planning to hold a live test in collaboration with TRA or other operators for 5G. 5G is not standardised so far, but we have the solution and the product so we’d like to bring this cutting edge technology to this country in advance so people will have awareness of what the new technology is in the coming years.”

5G services will have a broader bandwidth and will be significantly faster than 4G with a theoretical speed of 10 Gbps. This will allow higher productivity and ability to run more complex mobile apps. However, 5G will cost more to implement and while the newest mobile phones will probably have it integrated, other handsets could be rendered outdated.

“In the coming two to three years, telecom and ICT will be in a transition period. 5G is coming, but may take two to three years. These years will be challenging for both vendors and operators. So for this transformation to digitisation, we would like to build digital communities and make ICT a driving force for the economy. This is one initiative,” CEO Hong said, pointing out to the launch of Huawei’s ICT competition.

According to experts, 5G technologies still have a long way to go, especially in Oman, but Huawei testing these technologies are crucial to early implementation.

“5G is excellent. We all are waiting for it in the telecom industry, but it’s not happening soon. If Huawei is able to begin testing it with TRA, I believe it’s going to be a perfect start for 5G in the markets,” an official at an IT firm in Oman, said.

Currently, users in Oman are acquainted with 4G services, which are mainly an upgrade from 3G in terms of faster download speeds.