Good 3G/4G coverage has established a foundation for 5G in Jordan

 

Jordan is very much focused on high-speed, reliable, and comprehensive telecoms infrastructure to achieve its digital economy goals. The country already has a highly developed mobile sector, led by three major regional players, and has an extensive LTE network infrastructure.

The launch of LTE services quickly led to substantial growth in data revenue for the MNOs, which continue to expand their data offerings as a key focus area moving forward. The industry is also preparing itself for the next wave of developments relating to 5G and IoT/M2M.

The Kingdom of Jordan has three network providers: Zain, Umniah and Orange. 2G/GSM is on 900 MHz on Zain and Umniah and 1800 MHz on Orange, 3G/UMTS on 2100 MHz on all three operators. 4G/LTE has started on all providers in 2015 on 1800 MHz mainly in Amman, added by 2600 MHz. Many locals own more than only one SIM card.

Zain (a Kuwaiti company) is the market leader in Jordan and the best coverage and speeds in the country. 4G/LTE is has started in 2015 on 1800 Zain Jordan's number of subscribers reached 3.5 million by 31 December 2020  its parent company announced.

Umniah is owned by Bahrain-based Batelco. It's the second provider in the country giving a good coverage.

Umniah has announced that it will shut down its second-generation (2G) network in the near future in order to upgrade and invest in its existing 3G and 4G networks, following the example of a number of international telecommunications companies. This move, which is a first by a telecom in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, is directly in line with the company’s strategy to invest innovation in order to enrich and advance the experiences of its customers.

According to Umniah, its 3G and 4G networks are well equipped to provide all its subscribers, those with new smartphones as well as older versions, with the many advantages provided by these technologies, including better quality calls, faster data, smoother transmission between voice and data, better coverage and greater stability of the network in general.

Orange, affiliated to French Télécom, has the smallest network in the Kingdom.

Orange has said their 3G coverage has now reached 98.6% of the population, whilst it 4g footprint stood at 97.4%. The operator did not disclose coverage details for its 4G+ network but claimed that the system was capable of providing download speeds of up to 250Mbps.