Nokia and Ooredoo Qatar establish MEA's first private wireless network for energy sector

Nokia and Ooredoo Qatar have successfully established the first private wireless network for the energy sector in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. The landmark project will provide dedicated voice and customer data services in the most remote and challenging locations, the Finnish firm said on Wednesday.

With an initial capacity of 20,000 subscribers for the offshore grid, the project aims to connect offshore and onshore facilities, ensuring seamless voice and data services to empower customers to digitalize and automate operations, enhancing efficiency and productivity.

Samar Mittal, VP, Cloud and Network Services (CNS), Global Business Center (GBC) at Nokia MEA, said, "This Nokia enterprise solution, specifically designed for offshore locations, coupled with our delivery capabilities and expertise, ensures that the energy sector can now rely on a robust and resilient connectivity solution. Through this partnership with Ooredoo Qatar, we are setting new benchmarks for innovation, efficiency and reliability."

The partnership will see Nokia supplying its cutting-edge products tailored to deliver resilient mission-critical connectivity, along with deployment and care services. Additionally, its resident engineers will provide expert support to ensure that the network operates at an optimal level.

The solution seamlessly integrates with the existing commercial core, enabling customers to improve operational efficiency and reduce interruptions from onshore connectivity. It also enables the efficient handling of interoperability and interservice handovers, making communication between offshore and onshore locations smoother and more reliable than ever before, while managing latency issues through localized data services to improve process efficiency, according to Nokia's press release.

Further, the solution will improve customer experience, by replacing older Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies.

Commenting on this milestone, Gunther Ottendorfer, CTIO at Ooredoo Qatar, said, "This significant milestone underlines our commitment to transforming communication solutions for challenging environments. This landmark project provides dedicated voice and data services and paves the way for the oil and gas sector and others to replicate such solutions, marking a new era in connectivity for the industry."