Wi-tribe signs accord with Huawei
Islamabad
The HB Group, which purchased Wi-tribe from Qatar’s national telecom company Ooredoo, has confirmed that it has signed a partnership agreement with China’s leading Telecom company, Huawei, to deliver Pakistan’s fastest home broadband service.
The partnership is part $50m investment programme embarked on by the HB Group to upgrade and modernise broadband services in Pakistan following its acquisition of Wi-tribe in March last year. As a result of the partnership, Wi-tribe is set to introduce next generation LTE Advanced (LTE-A) technology in Pakistan, commonly known as 4.5G, making it the first company in South Asia and the Middle East to deploy the technology on its 3.5Ghz spectrum.
Commenting on the investment, Chairman of the Wi-tribe Supervisory Board and Former UK Government Minister Shahid Malik said that within six months time, over 1 million households will have access to the fastest wireless home broadband service in Pakistan using the most advanced technology currently available anywhere in the world. “This second investment is part of our $50m internet development vision for Pakistan, and is clear testament to our desire to bring world-leading technology and exceptional levels of satisfaction to our customers and potential customers in Pakistan,” he said.
“This is the beginning of an investment journey and by the end of 2018 we plan to be delivering single user households up to 200 Mbps speeds, and when the CPE technology catches up with our LTE-A 8 transmit and 8 receive technology, we will be able to deliver beyond lightning fast speeds of up to 400mbps in 2019,” Shahid Malik added.
He said this is a game-changer “and positions us as the stand out number one home broadband service provider in Pakistan and delivering a huge advantage over our competitors”.
“Today Wi-tribe, a Pakistan-based company, is a technology pioneer not just in Pakistan but also across a whole region. This was not an easy decision especially when large telecom operators are shrinking, consolidating, optimising and shedding thousands of jobs in the process. To invest as we have in this cut-throat environment represents a real belief in quality of Wi-tribe’s many hundreds of hard working staff across Pakistan,” he said.
Huawei Pakistan’s Deputy CEO Ahmed Bilal Masud said, “We are proud to have landed the contract to partner with Wi-tribe and to deliver our world-class internet solutions for the Pakistan market. The roll out of this 4.5G technology is the first of its kind in South Asia and the Middle east and we are proud to be partnering with Wi-tribe and pioneering LTE Advanced in Pakistan.”
After the launch of 3G/4G services, Pakistan has seen an increase in broadband penetration and adoption. However, Wi-tribe has been able enjoy an excellent uptake and retention of its services primarily due to their unique positioning in the industry as an operator providing high quality Home Broadband, excellent customer support and the best network uptimes in the industry.
