Qatari cell operator Ooredoo has deployed a non-public LTE community from Nokia for the oil and fuel business, protecting offshore and onshore operations. In a press assertion, Finnish vendor Nokia referred to as it the “first” personal mobile community within the Center East and Africa (MEA) area “for the power sector”, and stated it is going to cowl an “preliminary capability” of 20,000 subscribers on the offshore grid, and change “older” Wi-Fi and WiMAX applied sciences. 

Curiously, Ooredoo stated 18 months in the past it was working with Nokia, plus Swedish rival Ericsson, to deploy a “devoted LTE community for the oil and fuel business”, describing it on the time as “a primary for Qatar”, additionally. The brand new Nokia announcement really makes no reference to LTE, nor to 5G, simply calling it a “personal wi-fi community”. So one thing doesn’t add up; logic and assumption says it’s a new LTE venture, nonetheless. 

There isn’t a reference to the oil and fuel buyer, both. 

Nokia stated in a press release: “The primary-of-its-kind venture will present devoted voice and buyer information providers in essentially the most distant and difficult places. The deployed resolution… goals to attach offshore and onshore services, making certain seamless voice and information providers. By providing devoted connectivity, this community will empower prospects to digitalise and automate operations, marking a big step in direction of enhanced effectivity and productiveness.”

It stated it is going to provide “cutting-edge merchandise tailor-made to ship resilient mission-critical connectivity, together with deployment and care providers, with its resident engineers offering professional help to make sure the community operates at optimum degree”. The brand new community deployment covers a “native offshore system”, which integrates with the “present industrial core [network]… to enhance operational effectivity and cut back interruptions from onshore connectivity”.

Nokia continued: “The mixing equally allows the environment friendly dealing with of interoperability and interservice handovers, making communication between offshore and onshore places smoother and extra dependable than ever earlier than, whereas managing latency points by way of localised information providers to enhance course of effectivity. It would additionally enhance buyer expertise, by changing older Wi-Fi and WiMAX applied sciences.”

Günther Ottendorfer, chief expertise and data officer at Ooredoo Qatar, stated: “This vital milestone underlines our dedication to reworking communication options for difficult environments. This landmark venture supplies devoted voice and information providers and paves the best way for the oil and fuel sector and others to duplicate such options, marking a brand new period in connectivity for the business.”

Samar Mittal, vice chairman of cloud and community providers within the MEA area at Nokia, stated: “This Nokia enterprise resolution, particularly designed for offshore places, coupled with our supply capabilities and experience, ensures that the power sector can now depend on a sturdy and resilient connectivity resolution. By means of this partnership with Ooredoo Qatar, we’re setting new benchmarks for innovation, effectivity and reliability.”

The Ooredoo press announcement from 18 months in the past sounds remarkably related, suggesting the brand new Nokia deployment represents both the ultimate part of the preliminary Nokia/Ericsson experiment, with the Swedish vendor dropping from the venture in between instances, or that Ericsson is readying a parallel launch and there are twin personal community tasks in play, which is able to invariably interconnect, however might serve completely different functions.

The announcement from March 2022 states: “In a primary for Qatar, the brand new LTE community shall be devoted to sustaining connectivity and supporting prospects’ information and voice name wants in distant, difficult places comparable to offshore services. Having recognized a necessity for the supply of information and voice providers [for] its oil and fuel business prospects – to exchange older Wimax/WiFi expertise all through their offshore services – Ooredoo collaborated with… Ericsson and Nokia to develop a devoted LTE community that would help their offshore operations.”