Kuwait Telecom Company (STC Kuwait) announced that it has successfully tested advanced ‘5.5G’ technologies that include 5.5G three-carrier aggregation (3CC CA) and 5.5G Passive IoT. The cellco noted that the in-development technology ‘targets building an advanced 10Gbps connected smart network by features that provide higher data speed, increasing system capacity, boosted coverage, lower latency and massive device connectivity at a reasonable cost to meet local market demands.’

STC’s 5.5G 3CC CA trial utilised three Sub-6GHz frequency bands to achieve mobile broadband speed of 3.6Gbps on commercial devices; the operator’s 2100MHz 5G spectrum band was combined with ‘other large blocks of two middle band spectrums’ to boost 5.5G coverage, ‘which is useful for driving continuous service access to more 5G devices from a single tower and to areas that don’t have coverage, such as basements, deep indoor areas, and high building floors,’ it noted.

The company added that 5.5G Passive IoT connectivity ‘is projected to lead in shifting industries’ business models by opening new revenue opportunities and opening the possibilities for verticals to accelerate their competitive digitalisation plans … supporting the capacity of millions of passive sensors connectivity from many industries, such as retail, medical, logistics, manufacturing, and other industries.’

TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that STC Kuwait launched 5G fixed modem services in June 2019 and commercial 5G smartphone mobile voice/data packages the following month, supporting up-to-1Gbps data speeds from launch, before announcing the commercial implementation of 5G standalone (SA) technology on its network in May 2021 and unveiling an upgrade to the 5G SA network in December that year, dubbed ‘FULL 5G’ – supporting ‘higher speeds, lower latency and improved coverage’.

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