Last Monday, Telecom regulatory commission (TRC) has awarded the first and only 3G license in Jordan to Orange the second largest mobile operator in Jordan. TRC refused the bid offer from Zain, the most popular mobile operator in Jordan in terms of the number of users.
Philippe Vogeleer, Chief Strategy Office Secretary General of Orange, declined to disclose the exact launch day of Orange’s 3G services, he told ArabCrunch it will be within 6 month.
3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates (up to 14.4 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink with HSPA+). Thus enabling broadband Internet and video calls on mobile handsets and can be also used for high-speed PC Internet browsing.
Orange has not deployed the 3G network yet and has not chosen any network vendor ”we will have RFQ, and the best network vendor will win.” Said Vogeleer.
Orange will pay 50 million to TRC for getting the 3G license.
Orange has lost TRC’s last bid, but won it this time because according to Vogeleer, the conditions of the bid today were much better but not perfect. “The new conditions of the bid were much closer to what we asked in the beginning.” He added “We had put conditions to make it cost effective and hence affordable to the people.”
Since 90% of the mobile market in Jordan is prepaid, it is expected that 3G will be offered to Orange’s pre and post paid customers.
ArabCrunch is happy that 3G services will be in Jordan. This will bring the promise of Mobile 2.0 to Jordan. But I hope Orange will offer it at an affordable rate and with no download limits.
#Image by: cogdogblog
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