The new deal with Nokia will support du as it expands its 5G-Advanced network

Emirati telco du announced the extension of its strategic partnership with Finnish vendor Nokia to expand its 5G network in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the former said in a release.

The new agreement will support du as it expands its 5G-Advanced network, incorporating innovative technologies such as enhanced mobile broadband, advanced 5G carrier aggregation, network slicing, massive IoT connectivity through reduced capability (RedCap) and edge computing.

Du also highlighted that these capabilities will ensure the network is future-ready and able to support new use cases for consumer and enterprise customers.

As part of the extended deal, du will deploy Nokia’s 5G AirScale Radio Access Network (RAN) portfolio, including baseband, Massive MIMO Habrok radios and Remote Radio Head products. The Arab carrier highlighted that the deployment will deliver enhanced energy efficiency while catering the growing demand for 5G services, advancing towards the carrier’s 2030 net-zero ambition.

Saleem AlBlooshi, CTO at du said: “Leveraging Nokia’s 5G portfolio will not only enhance our network’s efficiency and flexibility but also enable us to explore new opportunities and services that can deliver genuine value to our customers and society at large.”

Mohamed Samir, VP of mobile networks at Nokia Middhe East said: “Du will be positioned as a frontrunner in the 5G services. Our shared vision is to redefine network performance with scalable, energy-efficient solutions, unlocking new avenues for 5G monetization and paving the way for future innovations that will transform connectivity across the region.”

In July, du had partnered with Nokia and MediaTek in a trial in Abu Dhabi that boosted uplink (UL) performance by 70% on du’s 5G-Advanced network, while also expanding indoor coverage for premium customers.

Du noted that the trial demonstrated significant improvements in UL speeds and coverage by leveraging multiple frequency bands and advanced transmission pathways. The faster uplink is particularly beneficial for high-demand applications like video conferencing, live streaming and large data uploads, du said.

The Arab carrier highlighted that the trial utilized a pioneering method featuring three transmitter antennas combined with two-component Carrier Aggregation (2CC) across FDD and TDD bands, incorporating TDD UL MIMO. Nokia provided its AirScale portfolio, including baseband, massive MIMO radios and macro remote radio heads, to enhance capacity, coverage and performance. The trial also utilized MediaTek’s T830 5G mobile FWA platform.

Du aims to launch 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology in Dubai this year, Abdulla Baghoum, head of technology operations at du, said during a previous 5G-A summit organized by Chinese vendor Huawei.

The executive noted that the telco’s 5G-Advanced strategy includes the deployment of this technology in the main cities across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next year and achieving national coverage by 2026.

The Arab telco and Huawei had recently deployed what it claims to be the first indoor 5G-Advanced (5G-A) network in the Middle East. In a release, the Chinese vendor said it used three carrier aggregation (3CC) technology for this new deployment.

The new indoor deployment builds on the previous 5G collaborations between Huawei and du. In 2021, du and Huawei claimed the first ubiquitous indoor gigabit-per-second network in the Middle East.