Following on from the recent news that United Arab Emirates (UAE) telco Etisalat plans to launch a 5G mobile network later this year, rival UAE operator Du has announced its intention to do the same. Du says while 5G-capabale devices are not expected to be made available until 2019, it will roll out infrastructure this year in readiness for their launch.
The National quotes Du’s chief infrastructure officer, Saleem AlBlooshi, as saying: ‘The mass adoption of 5G in the UAE will completely transform the landscape when it comes to how residents utilise their various connected devices, and [will] further strengthen IoT services in the region, which du provides. This will allow us to offer a number of innovative use cases including Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, IoT, Smart City applications and Remote Surgery, among others.’
Etisalat said earlier this month that 5G services will be launched in September, initially only in fixed-wireless mode via a home or office modem, with coverage limited to a select handful of locations.