Revealed: Dubai neighbourhood to be the first 5G powered district in UAE

More than 100,000 people will have access to 5G once first phase is implemented in Dubai

Dubai: One of the largest residential areas in new Dubai is set to welcome 5G into its neighbourhood, becoming the first smart powered district in the emirate.

Etisalat and Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) have announced that once the first phase is launched at Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT), over 16,000 companies and 100,000 people will be able to benefit from the 5G network.

In a statement, Feryal Ahmadi, Chief Operating Officer at DMCC, explained that the organisation’s Smart and Sustainable District Strategy is focused on the intelligent application of data and technology to deliver a better quality of life for thousands of residents and companies in JLT.

“With Etisalat Digital’s support, DMCC will introduce a new wave of innovation to Dubai, and completely transform how we respond to the needs of the community. The smart solutions planned will accelerate our sustainability drive and increase safety, reduce health risks, lower pollution, boost social connectedness and ultimately, deliver a cleaner and more sustainable environment for all,” she said.

Etisalat Digital will roll out smart devices, services and platforms to drive efficiencies across public amenities, energy consumption, asset and building management. Etisalat Digital will also provide smart solutions related to parking, street lighting, air quality, noise pollution, environmental performance and traffic monitoring.

Salvador Anglada, Group Chief Business Officer at Etisalat, said: “Etisalat Digital’s strategic partnership with DMCC will transform the JLT community to become the first 5G powered smart district in the region, making it a more seamless, efficient and safe experience for its members, residents and visitors.

“Both entities will work together to empower the community, reduce environmental footprint, provide smart solutions to improve infrastructure and transportation and deliver efficient public utilities,” he added.
What is 5G?

5G stands for the fifth generation of mobile network technology, which should begin to be rolled out in 2020 in Asia and the United States.

Each generation has offered improvements in data transmission speed and capacity, and with 5G the networks are really set to make the transition from telephony to other objects.
What will it be able to do?

The much vaunted internet of things has so far been hobbled by the limitations of mobile networks, both in terms of transmission speeds of handsets and the fact the backbone of networks hadn’t been expanded sufficiently in many cases to handle huge volumes of data.

With 5G, transmission speeds should accelerate sufficiently to allow for self-driving cars to take to the roads or for doctors to conduct operations remotely.

Abu Dhabi: Etisalat successfully completed the first end-to-end 5G Stand-alone call in the region and has become the first operator in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region to achieve the milestone.

Saturday’s announcement is a result of the test conducted in the 3.5GHz carrier with a spectrum of 100MHz. Using a Stand-alone (SA) smartphone, throughput of over 1.5Gbps was achieved in download speed and 200 Mbps on the upload speed.

Stand-alone 5G does not use 4G LTE for any control functions of 5G, unlike non-stand-alone (NSA) 5G. The major advantages of stand-alone 5G will be in the enterprise arena as lower latencies can be achieved and network slicing is possible.

Saeed Al-Zarouni, Senior Vice-President, Mobile Network at Etisalat, said: “This achievement has positioned UAE on a global platform, giving us an opportunity to share our experience and set an example for other operators in the region. The launch of 5G stand-alone will enable the application of 5G use cases across industry verticals optimising the capabilities of the network. This will also enable provisioning of the 5G network for automated and AI based technologies.”

Saturday’s announcement is a result of Etisalat’s efforts in building a robust 5G network that is software upgradeable from non-stand-alone (NSA) to stand-alone technology.

Etisalat became the first telco in Mena in May 2018 to launch the commercial 5G network providing fixed wireless service in the UAE. This was followed by another major substantial breakthrough in our 5G journey by connecting and partnering with Expo 2020 as the first major commercial customer in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region to access 5G services.

In May 2019, Etisalat was the first telecom operator in Mena to enable its customers to experience the power of the 5G network and release the first 5G handset before many others.

Etisalat also became the first telco in Mena to provide indoor 5G coverage in selected buildings in the country. Abu Dhabi Airport became the first international terminal to be powered with indoor ultra-high speed 5G connectivity.

Source: Gulf News

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