Insight
The operator says the new 5G-A Innovation Centre will allow the company to develop “innovative applications that meet the diverse needs of customer
The UAE-based operator du has announced the launch of a new 5G-Advanced (5G-A) Commercial Innovation Centre, aimed at exploring how the capabilities of 5G-A can create innovative new services.
The Innovation Centre, based in Dubai, will work to develop new services in the consumer, home, and enterprise segments, leveraging 5G-A’s improved capabilities over traditional 5G, including speeds of up to 5Gbps, lower latency, and greater capacities.
For consumers, 5G-A will offer significant improvements to traditional mobile experiences, offering faster and smoother live-streaming of high-quality video or ultra-low latency mobile gaming. These benefits will be particularly notable in locations where the mobile network is usually congested, such as on commuter trains or during live sporting events, with 5G-A’s greater capacity allowing customers to continue to enjoy high quality services despite the pressure on the network.
5G-A will also present a major upgrade for 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services, making the user experience for consumers at home even more fibre-like, with gigabit-level speeds and improved reliability.
Finally, the new Innovation Centre will also explore the deployment of 5G-A in enterprise and industrial settings, supporting smart manufacturing, remote collaboration, and intelligent logistics.
All of these novel and enhanced services will be increasingly integrated with AI, making them more personalised and intelligent.
du’s customer-centric approach drives to unparalleled user experiences, leveraging the advanced capabilities of 5G-A to introduce innovative applications that meet the diverse needs of consumers, households, and enterprises, accelerating the UAE’s digital transformation and ushering in a new era of intelligent, connected, AI-powered mobility.
The UAE – and, indeed, the wider Middle East region – has been a strong supporter of 5G’s continued development towards 5G-A. At a 5G-Advanced Leaders’ Forum event this year, the Emirati government announced a new national strategy for 5G-A, with the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) planning already planning for nationwide coverage. Achieving this goal, however, will require the collaborative efforts of all the nation’s telcos, as well as the wider telecom ecosystem.
For du, the opening of this new Innovation Centre supports this national strategy. The operator says it aims to establish high-quality and leading 5G-A network in the world, seeking to deploy the technology at thousands of sites by the end of this year.
This network will use du’s 300MHz of commercial TDD spectrum and include an upgrade to from two component carrier aggregation (2CC) to three (3CC). du says it expects this upgrade improve the user network experience and the actual commercial deployment has produced even greater improvements than estimated.
The first phase of the network project will cover key cities, with nationwide expansion in the near future.