He attended Sharif University of Technology[5] in 1980 for one year, and was expelled during the Iranian Cultural Revolution.

[7] Alamouti started his professional career at MPR Teltech, part of BC Telephone Company (now Telus) in Vancouver, where he worked on early mobile data protocols, including cellular digital packet data (CDPD).

[8][9] In 1995, he joined McCaw Cellular (now AT&T Wireless) as a Senior Scientist where he worked on the physical and MAC layer design of United States’ first[citation needed] commercial OFDM/MIMO system, known as Project Angel.

[10][11] He worked at several other companies prior to 2004, including Vivato, Cadence, McCaw Cellular, and MPR Teltech.

[19][20] Tarokh, Jafarkhani and Alamouti received the 2013 IEEE Eric E. Sumner award "For contributions to block signaling for multiple antennas".