Huawei and Omantel to Deploy Middle East’s First G.fast
[Muscat, Oman, July 3, 2017] Today, Huawei announced it will jointly deploy the first G.fast network in the Middle East working with Omantel, a leading operator in Oman. The announcement was made at the ninth annual Huawei User Group Meeting. Huawei's E2E G.fast solution will support Omantel to construct ultra-broadband networks more efficiently by reusing existing copper lines.
Omantel, the first and leading integrated telecommunications services provider in Oman, has abundant copper resources in its existing network. To meet growing subscriber demand for digital home services and high-definition video Omantel aims to reconstruct its live networks to achieve broadband acceleration. By 2020, the company plans to cover 90% of home subscribers in Muscat, Oman’s capital. In high-value areas it plans to provide 200 Mb/s to 1 Gb/s for high density buildings to provide users with higher bandwidth and an enhanced experience. Omantel is targeting a solution that provides faster access, faster deployment, and yields a faster return on investment.
Huawei proposed the E2E G.fast solution that employs optical line terminal (OLT), G.fast distributed point unit (DPU), and G.fast customer-premises equipment (CPE) to help Omantel meet its goals. Field tests show G.fast can achieve 800 Mb/s and 400 Mb/s at loops of 100m and 300m, respectively. This reflects much greater performance than ADSL2+ and VDSL2. Omantel will deploy G.fast in the basements of tall buildings, where the existing copper infrastructure, such as telephone lines, will be reused to deliver ultra-broadband access. This avoids the need for construction inside houses, which may involve drilling holes and open wiring, thus simplifying delivery, saving on cost, and reducing customer complaints. Large-capacity G.fast sites can also serve up to 96 lines, which significantly reduces per-subscriber cost.
In addition, Omantel will deploy the high-performance G.fast home gateway, which will provide subscribers with an improved experience for voice, data, video services, and dual-band gigabit Wi-Fi services.
"G.fast technology brings copper access into the gigabit era by delivering fiber-like speeds, which makes it possible for us to improve the experience for more customers using old copper lines and thus making the most of our existing copper network," said bin Abdullah Al Ajmi, VP Operations at Omantel.
"We look forward to continuing the partnership with Omantel through the commercial G.fast deployment,” said Leo Hong, Huawei’s Oman CEO. “Huawei’s investment and innovation in the end-to-end large capacity G.fast solution will significantly help Omantel accelerate the rollout of ultrafast broadband and achieve business success.".
Copper is an important infrastructure for fixed network operators and G.fast technology unleashes copper’s potential, helping operators make the most of existing resources to speed up ultra-broadband network deployment. Huawei, as the leading fixed access network solution provider, is committed to providing operators with future-oriented ultra broadband solutions. Huawei has made significant contributions to the formulation of the G.fast standards. After a multi-year R&D investment and cooperation with top industry players, Huawei has begun to release a series of G.fast products. These products support the industry's largest service capacity, smart and secure reversed power over Ethernet (PoE), remote power supply (RPS), as well as IP68 protection. To date, Huawei and more than 20 operators have carried out G.fast deployment and tests. G.fast has also been commercially deployed in counties such as UK, Switzerland, Germany, and Canada.
