- At present, Ericsson has more than 70 commercial 5G agreements with communication service providers
- Ericsson will provide 3GPP standards-based 5G New Radio (NR) hardware and software
Telecommunications company, Zain will collaborate with Ericsson to build its 5G network in Bahrain. The first commercial 5G services expected to go live before the end of this year. Zain aims to enhance the digital lives of people, enterprises and industries in the country via its 5G network with the help of Ericsson 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) and 5G Core products and solutions says the company.
Fadi Pharaon, president of Ericsson Middle East and Africa, says, “5G promises to accelerate the digitization of industries, presenting new opportunities and enabling service providers to launch the most advanced technologies while improving the end-user experience with faster speeds and lower latency. The deployment of these technologies will enable Zain Bahrain to meet the rapidly evolving demands of consumers and accelerate deployment of new use cases and innovative services for their enterprise and industry customers.”
LTE to 5G
Under this contract, Zain Bahrain’s network will be modernized from long term evolution (LTE) to 5G where Ericsson will provide 3GPP standards-based 5G New Radio (NR) hardware and software from Ericsson Radio System portfolio which includes multiple input multiple output (MIMO) solutions. Presently, Ericsson has more than 70 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with communication service providers out of which 23 are live networks.
An official statement from Ericsson says, “Ericsson’s 5G portfolio will enable Zain Bahrain to expand coverage while simultaneously strengthening its current network. Ericsson’s high-speed and low-latency 5G technology will help Zain to meet growing data traffic demands and deliver high-quality mobile broadband and fixed wireless experiences.”