The Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy has awarded 5G licenses to Tunisie Telecom, Orange Tunisie, and Ooredoo Tunisia, paving the way for the rollout of 5G services sometime next year.
Six months after the ministry began the tender process in June, the licenses were formally authorized on Friday, according to the state newspaper La Presse, accessed by the BrandSpur digital news platform.
In September, each of the three operators applied for a license. Each 15-year license includes 100 MHz of TDD spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band for 5G use and 5 MHz of duplexed spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Three 20 MHz blocks have also been reserved by the ministry and will be made available upon operator request. Later stages will see the availability of more 5G frequency bands.
The ministry’s initial goal was for Tunisia to have commercial 5G operational by the end of last month.
According to Sofiène Hmissi, Minister of Communication Technologies, the operators will now begin deploying 5G services in 2025. Hmissi stated that operators have been doing tests, pilot projects, and network upgrades in anticipation of 5G for the past few years, but he did not provide a precise timeframe.
He went on to tell the news brand: “The effective deployment of 5G will not be long in coming since everything is ready on the technical level.”
In a statement, Tunisie Télécom CEO Lassâad Ben Dhiab stated that the company has been testing 5G since 2020 and has installed more than 50,000 kilometers of fiber to facilitate its implementation. Nokia was hired by Ooredoo Tunisia last year to modernize its network RANs so they are ready for 5G.
In addition to considering potential enterprise use cases, such as VPN solutions and Internet of Things applications like robotics and connected cars, Tunisie Telecom stated that it will initially concentrate on giving customers faster mobile broadband speeds.
According to the newspaper, Hmissi praised the economic advantages that 5G would offer Tunisia by boosting the digital economy and the nation’s overall economy and increasing its appeal to investors and companies. To boost mobile network coverage in Tunisia from the current 96% to 100%, he added, the ministry intends to start more public-private partnership initiatives in the telecom sector, with an emphasis on distant and landlocked areas.
