Zain Kuwait, officially known as Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.C.P., is a Kuwait-based mobile telecommunications company. Its establishment dates back to 1983, when it was initially known as MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Company). The company underwent a rebranding process in 2007 and took on its current name, Zain. The ownership of Zain Kuwait is distributed among several entities. The Kuwait Investment Authority holds a significant share of 24.6%, while Omantel owns 21.9%. Other shareholders are undisclosed unless they own more than 5% of the company. Zain Group has a commercial presence in eight countries across the Middle East with over 46 million active customers.
3G Network
Zain Kuwait has provided 2G GSM services over the 900 MHz band, and launched 3G UMTS services in January 2007 over the B1 (2100 MHz) band and upgraded the service to HSPA+ in 2009.
3G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Status |
|---|---|
|
Active
|
3G Network Events
| Date | Event | Subtype |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Launch of 3G Network
|
Launch
|
4G Network
The company commercially launched 4G LTE services over B3 (1800 MHz) in November 2012. It was expected that Zain would also launch B20 (800 MHz) to provide a LTE-A service, however to date the network has not been activated. The company has demonstrated LTE-A Pro "Gigabit LTE" successfully in January 2016.
4G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Max. Channel Bandwidth | Status | Known EARFCNs |
|---|---|---|---|
|
20
|
Active
|
301
|
|
|
Active
|
1724
|
||
|
Active
|
3050
|
||
|
10
|
Active
|
6200
|
4G Network Events
| Date | Event | Subtype |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Launch of 4G Network
|
Launch
|
5G Network
The company has been collaborating with both Huawei and Ericsson on 5G testing, with trials conducted in September 2017 achieving over 70 Gbps downlink. Zain announced the launch of its first 5G base stations in June 2018, with commercial services being provided from June 2019. The network used the n78 (3500 MHz) mid-band.
Zain's 5G network was upgraded to Standalone (SA) in May 2022.
5G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Max. Channel Bandwidth | Status | Known EARFCNs |
|---|---|---|---|
|
100
|
Active
|
650016
|
5G Network Events
| Date | Event | Subtype |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Launch of 5G Network
|
Launch
|