du brings 5G-A closer to reality at Global MBBF 2023

“As CTO of du UAE, I’m always looking ahead,” says Saleem Alblooshi.

Alblooshi was responding to a question from Light Reading at the recent Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MMBF) held in Dubai – hosted by Huawei in cooperation with GSMA, GTI and the SAMENA Telecommunications Council – about why the UAE operator, which provides mobile and fixed broadband services to consumers and businesses, is now heavily focused on developing commercial use cases for 5G-A technologies.

Coinciding with Global MBBF 2023, and in keeping with the event’s theme – “Bring 5G-A into Reality” – du launched a 5G-A ‘showcase’ comprising two parts: a 5G-A Villa and a 5G-A ‘roadshow’. The Villa, dubbed by du as a ‘smart home of the future’ and a world first, is fed by a 5G-A FWA (fixed wireless access) link developed by Huawei. The solution can deliver speeds of up to 10Gbps.

“5G-A FWA provides a stable speed of 500Mbps to the Villa,” explained Alblooshi. “With this speed, households can enjoy 8K ultra-high-definition TV, virtual reality, and glasses‑free 3D. The new FWA will provide fiber-like experiences to our customers with shorter time‑to‑market.”

The 5G-A roadshow demonstrated on-the-move Internet speeds of up 3Gbps over a designated route. At the route’s destination, du showed that access speeds of up to 10Gbps were possible. 

Huawei: strategic 5G-A partner

At Mobile World Congress 2023, held in Barcelona, du and Huawei signed a Memorandum of Understanding for additional collaboration across different 5G-A technologies. Six months later at MBBF, John Gao, President of Huawei's 5G-A Domain, echoed Alblooshi’s enthusiasm for a more diverse range of services and improved end-user experiences made possible by 5G-A.

“5G-A supports a deterministic user experience and ensures low latency for XR and cloud-based services,” Gao told Light Reading, who was speaking alongside Alblooshi in Huawei’s Win Win Live studio. “It will provide an immersive user experience for multiple people in a family scenario.”

He added that Huawei’s FWA Pro, in the 5G-A era, will support multiple device connections, including smart wearables, smart home devices, smart surveillance devices, virtual games, multi-people 3D calls, and panoramic videos.

“5G-A,” continued Gao, “will support high-bandwidth private line and super uplink services for SMEs. Thus, in turn, will open a new growth space for operators.”

Alblooshi agreed. “5G-A will enhance the connectivity capability of operators, serving as a primary digital enabler in the UAE,” he said. “du has already rolled out a diverse strategy offering a broad array of services to our customers, including cloud, digital wallet, and Wi-Fi. We hope to further collaborate with Huawei, leveraging its cutting-edge technologies and industry‑leading solutions through this journey.”

ENABLE2027: du’s digital path to improved end-user experiences

Developing 5G-A capabilities is a key element of du’s five-year ENABLE2027 strategy. Unveiled in 2022, ENABLE2027 is not only designed to accelerate the operator’s own digital transformation, but also to help equip UAE with a first-rate ICT infrastructure that is fast, reliable and efficient. Improving consumer and business experiences are key drivers for digitalization.

One facet of ENABLE2027 is to evolve access technologies, which is where 5G-A comes in. 5G-A builds on du’s rapid rollout of a 5G non-standalone network, which now covers more than 98% of UAE’s population since launch in 2019. “We are confident du will continue to take a leading role in 5G services,” said Alblooshi.

Likewise, 5G-A builds on the solid progress du has already made in FWA. Since the launch of FWA two years ago, du has attracted more than 300,000 users, of which 70% use 5G. “While these 300K FWA users put very high pressure on du's network, the fast construction of our 5G network has built a solid foundation for supporting them,” said Alblooshi. The volume of 5G traffic, noted du, now exceeds 4G traffic.  

Aside from evolving access technologies, ENABLE2027 encompasses borderless resource harmonization (to boost operational efficiencies), energy efficiency, next-gen operations, cloud automation and network-as-a-service. Alblooshi calls the strategy proactive, comprehensive and – firmly in keeping with his business ethos – forward thinking.  

“ENABLE2027 is a visionary plan to build network construction in the next five years, which will provide the support for further business development,” emphasized Alblooshi. “In the 5G-A era, we will continue to innovate with leading partners to provide better experiences to our customers.”

Gao sees du as one of the leading operators within the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) group of countries, which comprises Bharain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. 

“Through joint innovation with industry partners, especially with du, we will take the lead in introducing commercial 5G-A networks and services in the CCG region,” said Gao. “Middle East operators have become leaders in the mobile industry, giving us the opportunity and responsibility to support GCC operators to mature new services, including glasses-free 3D, XR, cloud gaming, RedCap and private line applications.”

Gao argued that Huawei’s “comprehensive product line,” including RAN, core network, cloud and devices, will help GCC operators achieve “more and more business success.”