Huawei announced at the ninth annual Huawei User Group Meeting it will jointly deploy what it asserts is the first G.fast network in the Middle East with Oman Telecommunications Co. (Omantel). Omantel will deploy Huawei's end-to-end (E2E) G.fast systems to bring high-speed broadband to "tall buildings."
The deployment is part of an Omantel plan to upgrade its networks to achieve broadband acceleration. The service provider expects to cover 90% of home subscribers in Muscat, Oman's capital, with upgraded broadband access capabilities by 2020. Omantel will be able to offer 200 Mbps to 1 Gbps broadband to what Huawei termed "high-value areas" thanks to the G.fast deployment.
Omantel anticipates that the use of G.fast will reduce per-subscriber cost, as large-capacity G.fast sites can serve up to 96 lines and eliminate installation construction within homes. Omantel will also deliver voice, data, video services, and dual-band gigabit Wi-Fi services to subscribers by deploying Huawei's G.fast home gateway. Other systems Huawei will deliver as part of its E2E portfolio include optical line terminals (OLTs) and G.fast distributed point units (DPUs).
"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, vice president of operations at Omantel.
Huawei says it has collaborated with more than 20 operators on G.fast deployments and tests (see, for example, "Openreach taps Huawei, Nokia for G.fast roll-out" and "M-net to deploy G.fast in FTTB applications in Germany").
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