Industry Thought Leadership

Orange Jordan Seeks to Launch a New Era of Connectivity

As people and companies continue to seek faster, more advanced and reliable connectivity options, Next Generation Networks (NGNs) is a hot topic of discussion that has been trending lately around the globe. The shift towards highly-advanced technologies has led telecommunications companies to venture into new areas to expand their offerings in terms of connectivity solutions and to remain at the forefront of competition.

Since Orange Jordan entered the Jordanian market in 2000, it has been a key player in shaping the Jordanian ICT sector, continuously introducing state-of-the art technologies that ensure that its individual and enterprise customers remain connected at all times, wherever they are. Orange Jordan was the first telecommunications company to introduce the internet to the Kingdom, and it became the first company in Jordan to introduce 2G and 3G services. Soon after, building on its excellence in being the leading provider of fast internet and in alignment with its five-year corporate strategy, Orange Jordan launched its 4G network in 2015. This was the same year that Essentials 2020 was introduced, with the main goal of connecting people to all that is essential to them. The strategy also focuses on five key drivers that will essentially drive Orange Jordan towards success for itself and its customers, including offering richer connectivity options, reinventing customer relationships, building a people-oriented and digital employer model, accompanying the transformation of enterprise customers, and diversifying operations by effectively capitalizing on its assets.

To fulfill the promise of its strategy and in pursuit of being the strongest provider of fast internet, Orange Jordan is now focusing on NGNs, which are a new era of networks representing the future of connectivity, including LTE, Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) for individual subscribers, Fiber-To-The-Business (FTTB) for enterprise customers, and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem). These NGNs, with their capacity to connect people in more ways and on a different level than ever before, make the idea of ultimate convergence in the telecommunications industry an achievable reality. Today, the company is heavily investing in this area to make them viable services for users in Jordan. Between the years 2017 and 2020, Orange Jordan will invest JD 250 million to further enhance and develop its infrastructure, which will go, in part, towards developing its fixed and fiber networks, and increasing mobile coverage, providing an unmatched experience to its customers. More than 2,000 locations across the Kingdom are currently covered by 2G, 3G, and 4G networks with 95% of the country inhabitants being covered by 4G/LTE, and fiber will be available to more than 50% of households across the Kingdom by 2022. Currently, we have already laid 6,000 kilometers of Fiber-To-The-Business (FTTB) cables and 700 kilometers of Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) cables.

The main focus for Orange Jordan in 2017 is the full-scale launch of its fiber services, which are part of NGNs and are not only believed to benefit individuals and businesses, but also revolutionize the ICT sector as a whole. Each aspect of fiber has the potential to open new sectors, opportunities, and advanced solutions to facilitate business operations and everyday life, drastically altering the national ICT scene. With technologically superior IoT services and devices, smart homes, businesses, and cities, and IPTV, for example, everyone has the chance to take part in this new era. There is no doubt that these services will enhance the efficiency and productivity of both enterprise and personal customers, allowing them to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and compete on the international playing field. Advancing beyond just the ICT sector, fiber will also bring a wealth of benefits to the Kingdom as a whole.

Fiber, with the ability to bring an unprecedented level of connectivity to people and their surroundings, is also an integral component of another area that Orange Jordan is focusing on, “Smart Cities.” The company’s strategy therein spans three key sections that comprise all aspects of operations for growing urban areas to meet their challenges and bridge the gap between the release of the latest technologies and the ability of cities to adopt them as part of their current infrastructures. On three fronts, including “Smart Territories,” “Smart Utilities,” and “Smart Transport,” the concept of “Smart Cities” aims to help cities develop their security and infrastructures while improving quality of life for their citizens, gain efficiency to make best use of public spending, attract trade and economic development, find new ways to finance growth, and, finally, champion sustainability. Internationally, Orange Business Services has constructed “Smart Cities” at Msheireb and The Pearl in Doha, Qatar; Abdali in Amman, Jordan; Solidere in Beirut, Lebanon; and ITCC and Yanbu Industrial City in Saudi Arabia; as well as at a number of key locations in France.