UAE telco Etisalat announces 6G plans

UAE telecoms operator Etisalat has announced plans to explore 6G – the next generation of the mobile network – even as the rollout of 5G technology gains pace.

The company has made “considerable efforts” towards 6G realisation by conducting research and developing international standards for the ecosystem, Haitham Abdulazzak, Etisalat’s chief technology officer said at the ongoing Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.

According to experts, 6G will bring about much faster data speed – estimated to be 100x faster than 5G, as well as lower latency and higher reliability than 5G.

The introduction of new features, capabilities and use of millimeter frequencies seen in 5G is expected to be complemented with terahertz spectrum in 6G, Etisalat said in a statement.

It is one of the operators globally making steps towards the sixth generation of the network.

“The achievements by Etisalat today in 5G coverage, cloud native, slicing, multi-access edge computing (MEC) development, AI and automation platforms, as well as high fibre penetration which stands at more than 99 per cent of UAE populated area coverage, is a result of the long term strategy paving the way towards 6G,” said Abdulazzak.

“We are committed to bringing the latest technologies to UAE market to enable digital societies. As part of our vision and future technology planning, 6G is going beyond earth networks into space to enable new era of services and usage scenarios with terabyte data traffic resulting in extraordinary human to machine interaction.

“Etisalat is upgrading tools and capabilities of its R&D centre to enhance the contribution towards 6G global standardisation within the international fora and alliances.”

The 6G network will see the transformation of use cases targeted by 5G into a fully integrated autonomy, enabling “robotic humans operation, sophisticated human-to-human, human-to-machine and machine-to-machine relationships”, the statement said.

However, 6G technology will require communications governance and increased collaboration across multisector stakeholders.

“The technology is seen as an enabler of new coverage dimensions in space and maritime in addition to the terrestrial dimension,” the statement added.