Etisalat and du battle for fastest internet speed

Etisalat and du test ultra-high speed networks … which won’t be available to public for years.

Telecoms provider du has tested an ultra high-speed 4G long-term evolution network. Philip Cheung / The National

DUBAI // The two major telecoms are competing for the fastest mobile broadband speeds, despite the fact that it will probably be years before the service is available to the public.

Du said on Sunday that it had tested the “world’s highest” processing rate – 900 megabytes a second – to show the “future-proof readiness” of its 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network.

And Etisalat announced on Monday that it had tested and begun a phased upgrade of its network to an advanced 4G technology – 4G LTE-A – for the first time in the region, achieving 700Mbps.

The test speeds are far higher than what will be publicly available in the near future. Etisalat said it would provide speeds of up to 150Mbps in the coming months.

Neither company responded to questions about when these ultra-high speeds would be available to the public.

For Etisalat, it was a move towards establish the region’s first fifth-generation, or 5G, network, Saeed Al Zarouni, senior vice president of business planning and technology evolution at the company, told the state news agency Wam.

These ultra-high speeds would provide faster downloads for customers, improving video and reducing buffer time, said Saleem Al Balooshi, du’s executive vice president of network development and operations.

The speed of 900Mbps “is one of the first in the world”, said Mr Al Balooshi, and demonstrated the technological abilities of du’s infrastructure.

“This demonstrates our technical capability,” he said. “We are proud of this achievement, which shows our customers and people in the UAE that we have a strong operator with a highly competent and strong technology team.”

A 5G mobile network is expected to be available by 2020, Mr Al Balooshi said.

“The evolution towards 5G – we are working very actively towards this,” he said. “The 900Mbps is a step towards 5G.”

Devices and apps need to catch up to these high speeds before they can be used by the public, because they cannot now support them.

“It’s not only about being the first,” said Mr Al Balooshi. “It’s an ecosystem. You cannot invest in the network while the [device] does not support his capability.

“The success is when you introduce the service that will most benefit customers.”

LTE refers to the high-speed data communication standard for current mobile phones.

Du announced in August that it would accelerate its rollout of 4G because of growing demand, and expand its network by 25 per cent more than originally planned.

Etisalat has said its 4G LTE network would cover 88 per cent of the UAE’s populated areas and provide the country’s fastest mobile-internet speeds “in the coming months”.

Etisalat is the elder of the country’s two major telecoms providers. Du was established in 2006.

The announcements were made at Gitex Technology Week at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the event’s 34th conference .