Omantel, the sultanate's largest telecom provider, recently joined hands with global operators to promote the TD-LTE ecosystem as a major broadband technology and drive the additional development of TD-LTE networks.
The Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) was founded by China Mobile, Vodafone, Clearwire, Bharti Airtel, Softbank Mobile, Aero2 and E-Plus and was announced at the GSMA conference in Barcelona early this year.
LTE is an advanced technology family that provides consumers with high-speed wireless broadband services. It has already been launched in its first version - FD-LTE - in 15 countries.
In 2011, the second version of the technology - TD-LTE - has matured and is on its way to be launched in ten countries. The prime objective behind the formation of GTI is to harmonise LTE technologies.
Such efforts are well underway following GTI's first working meeting in China last April. Fifteen operators from America, Asia, Middle East, and Europe attended the session, a press release said.
Commenting on this occasion, Lars O Gustafsson, vice president of the Business Development Unit at Omantel, said, "We are extremely pleased to continue to lead the introduction of TD-LTE in the region, now also being the first Arab telecom operator to join this global initiative.
Additionally, joining GTI will help Omantel benefit from the experiences of international operators, involving studies, planning, test and commercialisation". "Omantel conducted the first trial of TD-LTE technology during Salalah Tourism Festival 2010 and the second trial during the Comex 2011 exhibition.
The results were very encouraging with speeds reaching more than 100 Mbps. Now with the technology commercially ready and the commitment made by world's leading operators to the deployment of TD-LTE, we are more confident than ever that we are moving in the right direction," Gustafsson added.
As part of its activities to promote the TD-LTE technology, GTI will organise a series of activities to bring TD-LTE operators and vendors together to share development strategies and technology know-how, expediting the development of terminals and fostering global broadband roaming and low-cost terminals.
Now having joined GTI, Omantel will both seek to contribute to the development of TD-LTE and to leverage the technology, alongside other complimentary technologies, to make broadband services something all in Oman can access and use.
© Muscat Daily 2011
