By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: Ooredoo yesterday launched its new 1Gbps Fibre plan, the fastest Internet service available in Qatar, as the company continues to upgrade its nationwide Ooredoo Supernet.
With the launch of 1Gbps Fibre, Qatar has joined the champions’ league to become one of only 10 countries in the world able to provide this fastest-ever Fibre connection for homes.
With the new fibre connection, customers can download a 30 minute 4K quality movie in three minutes and a two hour HD movie in two minutes. Households can expect to see a smoother and faster experience for all users, as the speed will enable more people to enjoy being connected to the Internet at the same time.
Waleed Al Sayed, CEO of Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Ooredoo continues to set new records with our big, fast network, and our on-going investment in our state-of-the-art Fibre network means that our customers can enjoy incredible 1Gbps Fibre speeds for the first time.”
He added: “We are one of the first operators in the world to launch 1Gbps Fibre home services and the very first in Qatar. Ooredoo believes in future-proofing our network, and we continue to strive to bring our country the latest technology first.”
Ooredoo announced this milestone at a special VIP event in Doha, where Al Sayed presented the incredible speeds of the service for the first time. In addition, the company premiered its all-new Platinum Homezone service, which provides comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage for large villas.
During his presentation, Al Sayed said that in February 2016 Ooredoo Qatar increased the internet speed up to 300mbps, three times faster than the launch speed of 100mbps in 2009. And now the telecom leader has achieved a new milestone of 1,000mbps (1Gbps), which again more than three times faster than the one launched in February this year.
Al Sayed highlighted that the company has invested over QR1.5bn in building Fibre optics networks across the country. And today over 85 percent homes have already been connected with Fibre.
“As we speak, people in over 275,000 homes and buildings in Qatar are enjoying high speed Internet and other services through Fibre connectivity, which is about over 85 percent penetration. And by the first quarter of 2017 we will achieve 100 percent Fibre penetration to become number one in the world,” he said.
Every customer who upgrades their current Fibre plan to the new 1Gbps plan will get two months at no extra charge, before they start to pay the standard monthly price of QR1,900. The installation fee is little over QR11,000. Since the service is tailored so the installation fee may even exceed depending on the size and design of a building.
While only compatible devices will be able to access speeds of up to1Gbps, customers using the 1Gbps plan will be able to deploy more devices to their full potential in their homes. Ooredoo also announced the launch of the luxury ‘Platinum HomeZone’ – a first-of-its-kind service that offers full Wi-Fi Internet coverage for customers with large villas and mansions.
The service has been designed in cooperation with HPE Aruba and GBM, and ensures that customers can access the Ooredoo Supernet at top speeds across their homes.
The Peninsula
