On top of the world: Etisalat claims 300Mbps LTE test speeds

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), the United Arab Emirates’ incumbent telecoms operator, has announced that it has achieved mobile broadband speeds of up to 300Mbps during tests of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. ‘I am delighted to announce that Etisalat has successfully completed the test for the highest 4G LTE speed in the world which reached 300Mbps thanks to the latest MIMO [multiple-input multiple-output] 4×4 technology,’ the Khaleej Times cites Etisalat’s CEO Saleh Al Abdooli as saying. ‘This speed will be a turning point for the customers in the mobile internet experience,’ he said, adding that devices that can support such speeds are not yet available on the market, but could be released by hardware providers ‘over the next year’. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database states that Etisalat unveiled its Long Term Evolution-Frequency Division Duplex (LTE-FDD) mobile broadband network in September 2011 and went on to launch commercial services the following December. The 4G network, which is integrated with Etisalat’s fibre-optic infrastructure, comprises around 1,000 base stations and is available to roughly 80% of the UAE.