Regulator worked with telcos Etisalat and Du with the aim of hitting 10Gbps
The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has completed of the second phase of testing of 5G-Advanced services in the globally-sought-after 6GHz band.
The regulator wants to unlock the full speed of 5G in the 6GHz frequency range using 400MHz of spectrum – the band is sought after by mobile operators at the expense of wi-fi companies which want it for unlicensed future development of that technology.
The UAE was the first country in the MENA region to release additional 500MHz of radio spectrum frequency in the 6GHz band to the total spectrum of approximately 11.5GHz already available for wi-fi.
TDRA confirmed the partners hit the results in this phase of the trial, reaching ten times the current speeds, which is considered to be the full throttle of the 5G-Advanced network in the world. The regulator believes mass IoT will need such speeds to accommodate thousands of small transmitters and receivers scattered across a smart city.
“We extend our thanks and appreciation to both the Emirates Telecommunications Group Company (e&) and the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), who have always worked with us with the logic of national partnership and unity of purpose, in line with the country’s future strategies and the directives of our leadership,” said TDRA director-general Majed Sultan al-Mesmar (above).
He added: “Having attained a speed of 10Gbps under this trial won’t become ordinary with time. This new, globally unprecedented speed will lead to faster data transfer, ushering in a new era of high-quality streaming and seamless cloud services. The trial will also enhance the IoT by providing the infrastructure necessary to simultaneously handle multiple connected devices, while ensuring seamless and reliable connectivity.”
The UAE was recently named the fastest 5G market globally in Q2 2023 according to Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence, with growing competition between the nation’s two network operators helping to drive overall performance in the market to reach a median download speed of 557.63Mbps. etisalat by e& was the fastest 5G operator globally with a median download speed of 680.73Mbps.
Saudi mmWave milestone
Next door, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s incumbent Saudi Telecom Company (stc) announced it had successfully completed 5G Millimetre Wave (mmWave) trials, exceeding 10Gbps in the experiments in a live working environment.
The telco said the success of these trials was a crucial part of its “Dare” strategy, which aims at providing access to new services and elevating customer experiences to new levels, in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 and supporting digital transformation in the region.