HUAWEI POWERS 5G NETWORKS ACROSS
ZAIN FOOTPRINT
Zain Group has made it clear that innovation and first-
mover advantage are strategies it believes are central
to its ongoing successes and development across its
geographic footprint. While others have taken a slow-
er and more cautious approach to the deployment of
nascent 5G networks, for example, Zain has taken a
bold and pioneering position with respect to the early
commercial deployment of the technology, supported
by its stalwart technology partner, Huawei.
In June 2019, the Zain Group flagship operation in
Kuwait, befittingly announced the introduction of its
5G Internet bundles for post-paid customers, a month
after the company had communicated the full readiness of its network for the
first commercial launch of 5G nationwide in the country. As a mark of this mile-
stone achievement, in the middle of June, Zain Kuwait temporarily changed the
name of its network to “Hello 5G”, which was a well-covered gesture.
Working closely with Huawei to place user experience at the heart of the rollout
of 5G services and applications, an early use case for the technology in Kuwait
is for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), which can be considered a direct
extension and progression of the current 4G LTE networks. It offers faster con-
nections, higher throughput and more capacity.
A second early use case for 5G is Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications
(URLCC), which means a 5G network is reliable for mission critical applications
that require uninterrupted and robust
data exchange. Massive Machine-Type
Communications (mMTC) are also set
to be a prime 5G-driven development,
allowing networks to serve as infra-
structure and enabler for new applica-
tions that are expected to mature in the
near future.
As the first operator to launch commercial 5G services in Kuwait in June 2019, Zain temporarily changed
the name of its network to “Hello 5G” and triumphantly rolled out numerous innovative digital services
to enterprises and individual customers. The company has since established the largest 5G subscriber
base in the market
6
Following the landmark introduction of
5G in Kuwait, Zain raised the size and
scope of its deployment of the technol-
ogy in an impressive way in the King-
dom of Saudi Arabia, where in October
2019 it announced the launch of the
first phase of its rollout in that market.
Huawei ensured there were no half-
measures taken, with the infrastructure
being rolled out to a network of 2,000
towers that covered an area of over 20
cities in the Kingdom, making it the
largest 5G deployment in the Middle
East and Africa at the time and the
third-largest in the entire world.
Zain Saudi Arabia gradually expanded
the Huawei-powered network to cover
a total of 27 cities in the Kingdom