e& UAE, the flagship telecom arm of global technology group e&, today announced a major performance milestone in its live 5.5G network with the commercial deployment of 4-Carrier Aggregation (4-CA) combining Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum — the first deployment of its kind in the region.
4-carrier aggregation allows a smartphone to use four parts of the same network at the same time, delivering faster and more reliable performance. By combining these channels, the phone can download and upload data more quickly and smoothly, even in busy areas. This enhancement delivers peak downlink speeds that exceeds 4 Gbps on supported smartphones while maintaining consistent performance through FDD’s wider coverage resilience, reinforcing real-world user experience across diverse environments.
The innovative FDD-TDD multicarrier integration significantly boosts network capacity and efficiency by leveraging FDD spectrum for broad, reliable coverage and TDD spectrum for high-throughput capacity — enabling superior performance for bandwidth-intensive applications such as 8K streaming, cloud gaming, and advanced enterprise connectivity. Achieving this on a commercially available smartphone confirms strong ecosystem readiness and accelerates the path to mass-market adoption of 5.5G-Advanced capabilities.
e& UAE remains committed to deploying the latest 3GPP-aligned, global 5G-Advanced enhancements to increase customer value and future-proof its network evolution strategy.
Notable recent network performance breakthroughs include achieving a 600 Mbps uplink speed on a live 5G network, underscoring a broader commitment to advancing both downlink and uplink performance.
Abdulrahman Al Humaidan, Senior Vice President, Access Network Development at e& UAE, said: “This latest advancement further strengthens our live 5.5G network with sustained multi-gigabit speeds and expanded capacity. It reflects our strategic investment in advanced spectrum assets and 5G-Advanced technologies to deliver high performance and reliability for customers across the UAE."
The 4-Carrier Aggregation capability is already live in select areas and is slated for wider rollout across the e& UAE network in 2026 and beyond, bringing significant real-world enhancements in speed consistency, coverage performance, and capacity. By anchoring the solution on FDD spectrum, the network ensures seamless support for voice over New Radio (VoNR) services even as users experience multi-gigabit data speeds through aggregated TDD capacity. This approach also supports ongoing efforts to refarm 4G spectrum to 5G, driving network efficiency and future-ready capacity enhancements.
e& UAE is actively collaborating with leading technology vendors and device manufacturers to widen the availability of 5.5G-Advanced features across devices and accelerate deployment timelines, ensuring optimal customer impact aligned with the latest 3GPP releases.
Source: e& Press Release
