Early this month, Unified National Networks (UNN) held a 5G Handset Workshop for industry players with the sole intention of getting all relevant parties ready for 5G when service is activated this year.
The 5G Handset Workshop held at Radisson Hotel on 12 August 2022 hosted more than 60 participants comprising of personnel from Authority for Info-Communications Technology Industry (AITI), Datastream Digital (DST), imagine, Progresif and handset vendors in Brunei.
Dr Steffen Oehler, UNN CEO conducted the workshop, where he detailed the company’s efforts towards modernizing the network infrastructure to accommodate to the dramatic increase of mobile data traffic in the next 5 years.
Current trends indicate that two-thirds of the world’s total population should be connected and online by this time next year, and mobile connectivity which has accounted for more than half of the world’s connected time since the end of 2018 is expected to increase. (Reference: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-july-global-statshot)
Along with the upcoming 5G technology targeted to launch this year, Dr Steffen highlighted the need for the company to balance between the scalability of the infrastructure and the economic benefits for the company, country, and its population.
Since 01 September 2019 when it started operations, UNN has rolled out a Single Radio Access Network (SRAN) to continuously expand the nationwide network outreach and bring about significantly higher speed for mobile services and additional connection points to improve connectivity in remote, geographically, and topically challenged areas in Brunei Darussalam. To-date, 90% of the country is covered for mobile services that are 5G-ready!
The modernization efforts by UNN had paid off, because in the latest July 2022 Global Median Speed reports from Ookla revealed that Brunei is ranked number 1 in ASEAN and number 14 in the world surpassing Singapore (ranked 18th) as top 20 countries with the fastest mobile internet speeds.
While the nation’s infrastructure is 5G-ready, it is important that the industry players are also ready, remarked Dr Steffen at the workshop. While there are many 5G devices available globally, it is crucial for the relevant handset vendors and telecommunications service providers (DST, imagine, Progresif) to be aware of the types of devices that are compatible with Brunei’s network.
5G handsets with 700MHz band n28, 1800MHz band n3 and 3.5MHz band n78 are most compatible, and handset vendors and telecommunications service providers may refer to reliable public sources such as GSM Arena to verify and confirm if the 5G device supports these frequencies and spectrum bands that are suitable for Brunei.
While mobile customer experience is dependent on best radio conditions and is expected to differ with these 5G frequencies, Dr Steffen reminded participants that connection speeds can be influenced by other factors such as signal strength, proximity between user and mobile base stations, amount of network traffic at the time users are accessing the frequency, and the types and capabilities of the handsets.
Before concluding the workshop, Dr Steffen emphasized the importance of participants to adopt the information relayed during the workshop so that they can identify the devices they acquire for Brunei market are compatible, not just with Brunei’s 5G network but also 5G-ready networks in other countries within the ASEAN region.
Participants are also encouraged to share with their own colleagues, especially those with roles and responsibilities of managing customers, so that they can mitigate any concerns with regards to 5G when the technology is launched this year.
UNN, jointly with the telecommunications service providers and supported by AITI, will be championing more 5G workshops for industry players in the coming months to prepare all parties for the upcoming 5G and align them to the Wawasan 2035 Smart Nation objectives.
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