• Demonstration of the power of 5G technology for Qatar National Day

• 5G-ready, commercially available Nokia AirScale Radio platform used to stream HD 3D virtual reality video content and manage industrial robots

• Event underlined Ooredoo Qatar's plan to launch commercial 5G services by 2020 and build smart cities with Internet of Things (IoT)

• Ooredoo plans to deploy Nokia AirScale Radio in 2017

15 December 2016

Doha, Qatar - Nokia and Ooredoo Qatar have successfully demonstrated how 5G technology can deliver extreme broadband speeds of 10 Gbps and reduced latency of just 1 millisecond, reiterating the operator's contribution to Qatar National Vision 2030 goal to boost the knowledge-based economy. The 5G speed and latency was demonstrated with two different applications - the streaming of virtual reality content and use of industrial robots. The demonstration at Ooredoo's headquarters used the 5G-ready Nokia AirScale radio platform and Nokia AirFrame servers to showcase 3D 360 degree virtual reality (VR) streaming of content created with the Nokia OZO VR camera, providing a fully immersive VR experience for visitors.

In the demonstration, the 400 MHz bandwidth in the 4.5 GHZ frequency and Multiple Input Multiple Output (8x8 MIMO) technology with eight receiving antennas and eight transmitting antennas were used to improve network speed and capacity.

In the virtual reality streaming demonstration, the 5G-ready AirScale transmitted ultra-high-definition video smoothly without buffering due to high throughput and reduced latency. In the demonstration of industrial robots using 5G, three robots were given a simple task of balancing a ball over a platform, and the robots took just a fraction of the second to do that. The robots connected to the 5G-ready network were able to communicate with each other in real-time to perform the task as required due to reduced latency and high-speed network.

This kind of performance is critical for use cases including augmented reality, virtual reality, e-education, e-health, industrial applications, machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and critical communications - it will be key in the near future to enable smart cities with IoT.

Waleed Al Sayed, chief executive officer of Ooredoo Qatar, said:

"For Qatar National Day, we wanted to celebrate the achievements of Qatar's founders and also look forward to the future, at the new accomplishments that the people of Qatar will realise. This demonstration shows not only the speed and latency of 5G networks, but also the types of solutions and technology that will become available in Qatar as we become a truly 'smart nation'."

Ricardo Silva, head of Mobile Networks Product Portfolio Sales, MEA, Nokia, said:

"Today's demonstrations show the technology leadership aspirations of Ooredoo Qatar in the region. Ooredoo has ambitious plans for smart cities and IoT based on 5G technology, and we are ready to support them with our latest multi-standard 5G-ready Nokia AirScale radio as well as our smart city and IoT solutions."

Picture : 5G demonstration by Nokia and Ooredoo Qatar