5G DEPLOYMENT IN KEY MARKETS
Zain’s goal is to be the first operator in the region to launch commercial 5G networks, having already successfully trialed the technology. As part of a comprehensive plan, Zain Saudi Arabia introduced 100 commercial sites in 2018, while Kuwait worked towards having 50 5G sites in place before the end of the year. 5G technology will allow Zain to deliver data rates beyond 1Gbps, providing higher broadband density to users at extremely low latency. Zain believes 5G will power machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, which relate to connecting tens of millions of terminals rather than people.
WTTx
WTTx (Wireless-To-The-X) is a 4G and 4.5G-based broadband access solution that uses wireless technology to provide fiber-like broadband access for a variety of scenarios, including access in rural, suburban, and dense urban areas in a reliable and cost-efficient manner. The technology avoids the complicated requirement for fiber, cable or copper deployments and offers competitive speeds with at a high return on investment. WTTx also offers less deployment time and comes with plug-and-play functionality. In addition to the connectivity, WTTx enables a wide range of services such as video broadcasting, VoIP, VPN (virtual private network), and online gaming which all have the ability to enhance an operator’s ARPU as well as multi-play enhancing stickiness and reducing churn.
WTTx is considered a milestone development in Zain’s journey to provide cutting edge technologies to connect the unconnected areas and improve customer experience, and Zain has already introduced WTTx in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.
DATA VOLUME ACROSS ALL ZAIN MARKETS REACHING 8.67 PETABYTES PER DAY IN 2018.
-
8.67 PB OF
DATA DAILY
DOWNLOADED AND UPLOADED BY 13.48 MILLION CUSTOMERS ACROSS ZAIN MARKETS.
-
AVERAGE DATA
CUSTOMERS -
13.48m
Data Customers
4.38m
(22% up)4G
Customers
ZAIN GROUP OPERATES A TOTAL OF 56,000 SITES, OF WHICH 13,307 ARE 4G COVERING OVER 83% OF THE POPULATION ACROSS EXISTING ZAIN LTE MARKETS AND CARRYING 72% OF ALL DATA TRAFFIC.
-
55,847
Sites
13,307
(24% )4G
sites -
TOTAL NUMBER OF SITES
PROVIDING OVER 98%
OVERALL COVERAGE
ACROSS ZAIN
POPULATION FOOTPRINT
(EXCL. SOUTH SUDAN)
THIS GROWTH IN DATA IS ALSO DRIVEN BY AN INCREASE IN THE USE OF SMARTPHONES REPRESENTING 53% OF ALL DEVICES IN OUR MARKETS WHICH IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT IN ENABLING GREATER DATA CONSUMPTION PER CUSTOMER.
SMARTPHONE PENETRATION
CONTINUES TO GROW IN
ALL OUR MARKETS
We are continuously exploring new technologies to enhance our customer experience capabilities. We are actively investing in technologies that enable prediction and automation in key areas of network experience delivery, such as operations, optimization and tools that assist in the detection of the degradation of network performance before customers are impacted.
ENERGY AND SITE OPTIMIZATION
SITES SHARING & OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT
Sharing of site infrastructure in Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia has helped Zain achieve two main objectives:
- 1. To reduce the deployment time of its network, providing better services to customers in an efficient and timely manner.
- 2. To reduce our carbon footprint by lowering our energy requirements.
By prioritizing the use of outdoor cabinets, Zain is moving away from conventional telecom equipment housing facilities to optimized and energy-efficient equipment. Outdoor cabinets tend to rely on natural cooling and fewer cooling solutions, thereby reducing energy consumption. Outdoor equipment has been deployed in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Sudan and Iraq.
NEW DATA CENTERS
Zain is upgrading its data center facilities to meet increasing Information Communication Technology (ICT) demand in line with our strategy to provide the best digital experience to customers. While two data center facilities are under development in Sudan and Jordan, another is in the planning stage in Saudi Arabia.
In Jordan, Zain was granted the TIER III certification of Design Documents known as TCDD by the Uptime Institute for its new data center facility that is under development. The TIER III level of data center requires concurrent maintainable infrastructure geared to eliminate disruption due to planned work. This is in line with Zain’s objective to provide the best customer experience through the deployment of reliable infrastructure and the use of the best deployment techniques that combine modularity, efficiency and short time-to-market. Zain is taking the necessary steps to ensure that this new infrastructure is implemented as per the design approved by the Uptime Institute.
The data centers under construction in Jordan and Sudan have a target power Usage Effectiveness of 1.67, which means that only 40% of the data center facilities’ energy is required for supporting the optimum functioning of the ICT equipment. Typically, 50% of a data center’s energy is required for this purpose.
Figure1: Zain Group API Layer Customers growth
Figure 2: Zain Group API layer payment transactions growth