Zain Kuwait has stressed that the Gulf’s race for 5G is more than a slow progression to an upgraded system; it is now about opening up the doors to a multi-gigabit future. Zain has set itself apart from other operators by breaking through the gigabit barrier and earning a notable multi-Gbps achievement through years of consistent investment and technical risk. Multi-Gbps is not simply a speed record; it shows how the wireless industry will start to compete with fixed broadband for everyday applications.
Zain’s achievement has raised the bar for mobile network performance. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) using 5G Advanced technology may now provide homes and small businesses with download speeds comparable to those of fiber optic connections with no need for digging and laying new cables. The new 5G platform has led to a massive increase in throughput and a reduction in latency for gaming and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) creators, which will likely result in a substantial increase in the potential for creating new forms of products. Many of the products being envisioned by the gaming and VR/AR development community include wireless multi-participant virtual collaboration rooms, instant 16K video editing in the cloud, and seamless multiplayer esport games on mobile devices. Zain’s trials/launches will make these opportunities real.
At a technical level, the advancements are largely dependent on two market drivers—software-defined, Open-RAN architecture and the evolution towards the 5G-Advanced/5.5G technology stack. Open-RAN allows operators to combine and match hardware and software from other suppliers, which lowers costs and hastens innovation. Open-RAN is also an essential technology for enabling the high-speed throughput that Zain was able to demonstrate in its recent proof-of-concept tests. Furthermore, Zain’s commercial deployment of the 5G-Advanced technology across most of Kuwait further validates that the high-speed capabilities demonstrated during the proof-of-concept tests can now be turned into a real-world service.
Additionally, a national element also exists. Kuwait‘s government is making considerable progress to digitalize its services and attract capital investment related to cloud computing, smart cities, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the means for which are built on the back of very fast mobile networks. Zain has been listed as having one of the fastest networks in Kuwait, through independent testing, and has established itself as a credible player in the industry due to multiple successes in achieving record-breaking multi-Gbps speeds, which will be leveraged to secure future enterprise contracts and partnerships with the public sector.
There are still current limitations when it comes to testing maximum speed; just because a device reaches maximum speed during a test does not mean that every other device will receive coverage; a device must also be able to take advantage of the maximum speeds. The growth of testing speed is a sign of the changing views of mobile technology, and the future vision of mobile technology is to give consumers a suite of services that can replace data plans by giving them mobile access to their primary source of data. The transition for both consumers and developers has gone from asking if there will be more innovation to what kind of innovation will happen, soon.
