Zain considers major proposals to introduce G4 services in Jordan

Zain, part of the Zain Group, the leading mobile operator in the Middle East and Africa, is studying a number of offers by major international companies for the introduction of fourth generation services, also known as Long Term Evolution (LTE). 

Under consideration are offers to build the necessary infrastructure to introduce the new technology and its applications from companies like Motorola, Ericsson, Hawawi telecom, Nokia, and Siemens. They follow Zain’s announcement of its intention to introduce LTE technology services in the local market in an offer it made to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.

A revolution in the global mobile communications industry, 4G technology is the next step in broadband technologies. It is designed to carry huge amounts of data at very high speeds reaching 150 megabits per second. LTE also allows for high speed internet browsing as well as for multimedia applications such as video conferencing, high definition broadcast, video blog for educational and entertainment programs, or unprecedented high speed video upload to social websites.

Zain CEO Dr. Abdel-Malek Al-Jaber stressed the need to provide such advanced technologies, citing increased customer interest in content, data, and internet services. He said such new mobile internet services will constitute an important leap in the daily lives of Jordanians in all fields through the introduction of innovative solutions to businessmen and other professionals on the go.

Mr. Al-Jaber said Zain is awaiting with great interest a decision by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to allow it the required approvals that will lead to the launch of a trial stage ahead of official launch early next year. He said Zain expects the operator approval mechanisms to be clear and along the same framework adopted by the Commission for the introduction of the G3 license.

Zain Group had met in Bahrain last week to discuss LTE technologies which focused on technical issues and the service frequency spectrum, as well as a review of international telecommunications providers. The meeting also reviewed market trends and the changing consumer patterns with regards to demand of data and internet services, in addition to the advanced network architecture used to provide highly efficient and effective LTE services.

Zain Bahrain has earlier announced its intention to launch LTE services in its market, while Zain Saudi Arabia signed a contract to implement the first LTE network in the Saudi market which will begin in the second quarter of this year.

It is worth mentioning that G4 technology was at the center of discussions during the International Mobile Telecommunications Conference held in Barcelona last February, which reviewed success stories and indications for expected growth. CSL, Hong Kong’s biggest mobile operator said data traffic through its network has tripled since it introduced its LTE services.