Oman: 5G plans to accelerate growth and innovation
The economic and social benefits of 5G has prompted more wireless infrastructure investments across the world. Oman in particular, is accelerating plans to become a technology hub in the Middle East; to nurture innovation, sustain progress and develop competitive advantage.
5G subscriptions in the MENA region is estimated to reach 80 million by 2025, representing 10% of total mobile subscriptions, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report while “5G subscriptions are estimated to reach 220 million by end of 2020.”
Oman’s next-level development
Oman was quick to implement their progressive vision after Omantel announced the launch of a 5G commercial network in December 2019.
Oman aims at leveraging modernization and shared learning to enhance the quality of life for its people with technological innovation having an important role in context to the Oman Vision 2040.
In addition, telco operators in Oman are thriving to keep the network updated, thus Omantel selected Ericsson to accelerate its ongoing 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) deployment plans.
These measures have been taken to facilitate the experience of mobile users that amounted to 6.24 million mobile connections in Oman in January 2020. The number of mobile connections in Oman at that time was the equivalent to 124% of the total population.
5G benefits for citizens and society
Citizenswill enjoy speeds of more than 1Gbps and low latency in user experiences such as streaming, downloading, gaming, infotainment and interactivity. Furthermore, Omantel will be able to explore and build new business models and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
The 5G network use cases will accelerate the deployment of more stations thereby expanding the network capacity of the country, which will result in an economies of scale; providing lower cost per gigabyte.
Undoubtedly, 5G is set to be the key driver of innovation and the digital economy, boosting GDP and maintaining national competitiveness. The benefits span from individual interests to helping local businesses and industries in Oman including, healthcare, logistics, transportation and education.
In order to meet the remote learning challenges faced by teachers and students amid the COVID-19 in April 2020, Omantel introduced G Suite for Education, a collection of free apps by Google, designed especially for schools throughout the Sultanate. Nationwide 5G coverage will boost efficiency of these services and facilitate further growth in areas such as online learning.
Such developments give us a glimpse into the future of 5G and the role mobile network operators will have in providing 5G-powered innovation that will enhance connectivity, service offerings and way of life.