UAE telecoms company Etisalat announces 6G plans

Abu Dhabi-based company is upgrading capabilities to go 'beyond earth networks'

Etisalat says it is upgrading upgrading its capabilities to cope with a 6G network

UAE telecoms provider Etisalat has announced it is developing plans for 6G.

The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry.

"Advancement and development of new mobile technologies has become much more rapid than ever", said Haitham Abdulazzak, chief technology officer at Etisalat.

"Introduction of new features, capabilities and use of millimetre frequencies seen in 5G is a result of this advancement, which is expected to be complemented with terahertz spectrum in 6G.

"Etisalat is one of the ambitious players making steps towards the sixth generation of the network."

The roll out of 5G began in 2019 and is expected to have more than 1.7 billion subscribers worldwide by 2025, according to the GSM Association.

It has faster data speeds than 4G, and has higher data caps for mobile devices. Sports networks can also use 5G micro-networks to stream events both live and wirelessly.

6G is expected to be even faster and to support applications such as augmented and virtual reality, as well as AI infrastructure.

"As part of our vision and future technology planning, 6G is going beyond earth networks into space to enable a new era of services and usage scenarios with terabyte data traffic resulting in extraordinary human to machine interaction," said Mr Abdulazzak.

"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."