Ooredoo enjoyed success at the CommsMEA Awards in Dubai last week, with Ooredoo companies winning four top honours including the “IPTV Service of the Year” for Qatar’s Ooredoo tv service; the “Network Optimization Award” for Ooredoo and Nokia’s inspiring initiative to enhance the Ooredoo Supernet in Qatar; and “Telecoms Technology Investment of the Year” for Ooredoo Oman’s commitment to providing quality coverage to meet the fast-evolving communications needs of the Sultanate.
In addition, Asiacell, part of Ooredoo Group, won the “CSR Campaign of the Year” jointly with Ericsson and the International Rescue Committee for their “Connect to Learn” project in Iraq.
The awards were presented to operators, regulators and other technology and service providers in recognition of their achievements in ensuring that the Middle East and Africa region stays at the frontier of digital innovation.
The ‘IPTV Service of the Year’ award honoured Ooredoo’s next generation Ooredoo tv service, which was the first 4K entertainment service to launch in the region.
The crystal-clear Ooredoo tv service was launched in February 2016 and was designed as an evolution in home entertainment services, combining apps, on-demand and live television in one easy-to-use box. Utilising the powerful fibre connection of Ooredoo’s Supernet, Ooredoo tv offers incredible 4K TV viewing quality, so that viewers can enjoy a high definition experience even on the largest screen.
For Ooredoo and Nokia, winning the inaugural “Network Optimization” award is an important testimony to the strength, speed and resilience of the Ooredoo Supernet, which the companies have worked together to upgrade throughout 2016.
Under its Supernet initiative, one of the most significant network evolutions in Qatar’s history, Ooredoo partnered with Nokia to deploy it’s LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation technology to offer subscribers with compatible mobile devices up to 375 megabits-per-second speeds in busy areas of Doha.
Ooredoo and Nokia have also worked to deploy Nokia’s leading 2G, 3G, 4G, 4G+ LTE radio and core network technologies in 2016, so that Ooredoo can expand its Supernet experience across the country and deliver the highest speeds and quality to the growing number of data users.
Ooredoo Oman received the “Telecoms Technology Investment of the Year Award” for its on-going invest in mobile and fixed networks across the Sultanate. The company has invested significantly in enhancing our 4G Internet quality and coverage in 2016 and has enhanced its fibre optic network to span 5,500 km and cover more than 100,000 households.
Today, Ooredoo’s mobile network geographical coverage is high compared to other countries of a similar size, reaching out to 99% of the population to serve customers even in sparsely populated areas.
The “CSR Campaign of the Year” went to the “Connect to Learn” project, which aimed to support refugees and internally-displaced children attending schools in Domiz Refugee Camp, Iraq. It deployed a cloud-based ICT platform, Connect to Learn, made accessible on a 3G internet provided by Asiacell to support the professional development of teachers in schools for refugee children.
Through this technology, teachers have access to teacher training materials that have been developed or curated by the International Rescue Committee, which are aimed at helping teachers to create safe, quality learning environments.
In all, Ooredoo Group and its companies were nominated for 14 awards at the prestigious event, reflecting Ooredoo’s innovation in a range of fields, including network development, digital lifestyle, marketing and customer service.
Seventeen awards were presented at a gala dinner at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai, with around 200 ICT leaders and professionals in attendance. The 11th CommsMEA Awards attracted a strong field of nominations, reflecting the different ways communications technology is evolving.