Zain integrates 6 frequency bands to achieve a speed of 3 gigabits per second
Zain Kuwait has achieved a new milestone in its journey to develop the 5G-Advanced network, successfully completing the first test of its kind in Kuwait for carrier aggregation technology across six frequency bands, achieving speeds of up to 3 gigabits per second. This achievement reinforces Zain’s efforts to push the boundaries of 5G-Advanced technology on its most award-winning network in Kuwait.
This accomplishment represents a significant step forward for Zain in delivering faster, smarter, and more reliable connectivity, while solidifying the network’s leadership as a cornerstone of its corporate strategy, “4WARD – Advancing with Purpose.” It also contributes to enhancing Kuwait’s digital infrastructure readiness to meet the growing demands of a digital economy increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
By expanding the capabilities of its 5G-Advanced (5G-A) network across a broader spectrum of frequency bands, Zain is building a more robust infrastructure capable of supporting advanced digital experiences, improving indoor connectivity quality, enabling AI applications on mobile devices, and keeping pace with the continuous growth of data-intensive services.
With 5G services accounting for over 70 percent of data traffic on its network, Zain continues to invest in technologies that enhance current network performance and prepare its infrastructure for future digital demands. This achievement underscores the company’s role in developing Kuwait’s digital ecosystem and providing a connectivity framework capable of supporting smarter, more interactive, and data-driven services.
Field tests conducted in collaboration with MediaTek confirmed download speeds reaching 3 gigabits per second, demonstrating the tangible performance leap enabled by carrier aggregation technology in 5G-Advanced. In addition to higher speeds, the technology facilitates a smoother transition from the current 4G to 5G spectrum, allowing Zain to utilize its network resources more efficiently as demand for 5G services continues to grow.
The technology is also expected to enhance 5G coverage, particularly in indoor spaces and locations where signal penetration faces greater challenges. Furthermore, carrier aggregation significantly boosts uplink capacity and performance, providing the high-quality connectivity required by mobile AI and multimedia applications that rely on the rapid exchange of large data volumes.
This achievement also supports Zain’s broader sustainability goals by improving network energy efficiency during the transition from 4G to 5G. The “NRC66” architecture is designed to reduce energy consumption per unit of data transmitted, enabling greater network capacity and performance efficiency while contributing to Kuwait’s development objectives in sustainability and carbon emission reduction.
The test combined six frequency bands using both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) technologies, configured as “4FDD+2TDD.” The setup utilized 100 MHz on band N41, 100 MHz on band N78, 20 MHz on band N1, 15 MHz on band N3, 10 MHz on band N8, and 10 MHz on band N20, using MediaTek’s M90 modem. Notably, this achievement marks the first successful global test of NR6CC configuration using the 4FDD+2TDD setup.
