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 fastest home broadband service in Pakistan.
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, Wi-tribe Supervisory Board Chairman Shahid Malik said.
Malik, the ex-minister of UK, added, “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.
In practice, this will mean a revolution in terms of the amount of data Wi-tribe can offer its customers but more importantly, it will mean speeds of up to 100Mbps for a single user household.
This type of speed is unheard of in our industry and if you couple that with huge GB volumes available, we will be able to offer the best internet packages in Pakistan in terms of speed, volume, reliability and value for money.”
This strategic partnership will be the 2nd major investment by Wi-Tribe after a multi-million upgrade of its spectrum in August 2016, which doubled its capacity to ensure a much higher satisfaction while browsing the internet for its customer base.
Malik continued:
Meanwhile, 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.”
“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,” said Malik.
He described the investment as a game-changer for the company, stating:
“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.
We take pride in the fact that 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 a bulk of telecom operators are shrinking, consolidating, optimising and shedding thousands of jobs in the process.”