UAE: Etisalat unveils its ambitious 6G plans

Dubai - The 6G technology is unlike any other innovations as it enables the transition from science fiction to reality.

The UAE may be on the cusp of achieving a prestigious global milestone with etisalat revealing on Wednesday its dauntless foray into the revolutionary next-generation mobile network — 6G — that is estimated to be around 100 times faster than 5G.

The UAE’s telecom giant said it has taken considerable efforts towards 6G realisation by “conducting research and developing international standards that are the main building blocks for the 6G ecosystem”.

The 6G technology is unlike any other innovations as it enables the transition from science fiction to reality.

Experts say it will usher in a revolution in innovation, unleashing artificial intelligence, revolutionising the healthcare and data-transmission sectors, and creating never-before-seen privacy issues. “6G offers the potential for transmission speeds 100 times greater than 5G, near-zero latency, and connection density as high as 10 million devices per square kilometre. These advances will create a network where almost every device can be simultaneously connected, enabling a range of technologies that are not possible today,” said authors of a study titled ‘The promises and perils of 6G technology.

Haitham Abdulazzak, chief technology officer, etisalat, shared his insights during his address at a session titled ‘Setting the roadmap to 6G’ at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry.

“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, Abdulazzak said at the event running from June 28 until July 1, 2021.

Telecom analysts said etisalat has taken a big leap into the future with this dream initiative that is being attempted by only a few of the most advanced telecom players in the world so far.

“6G is not yet a functioning technology, and indeed, is in the early research phase. Mobile telecom companies are much too focused on 5G to deal with 6G in any significant way, although early research projects have begun thanks to funding from governments that want to gain an edge,” analysts said.