Page 34 - SAMENA ELITE - Apr-June 2024

INDUSTRY UPDATES
34 APRIL-JUNE 2024

du to Bolster FWA 5G Play

UAE-based operator du is looking to Through micro-segmentation analysis mobile, IoT, and M2M. Indoor coverage
build on its success in fixed wireless of the market, du found that, despite was also another major challenge,
access (FWA) by launching more nearly 100% fibre coverage in popu- as mobile signal is inherently poor at
specialised consumer and enterprise lated areas, 20% of households were penetrating walls, and FWA is a ser-
products, as the operator pushes for still not connected to fibre services vice that will be predominantly used
more market share. due to high prices and long-term indoors.
contract requirements.
During MWC Barcelona earlier this Pushing Ahead
year, Mobile World Congress Bar- As 4G FWA customers were migrated Going forward, Benkirane said du
celona, du chief commercial officer to 5G, “we started to really see an will expand from being focused on
Karim Benkirane hailed the operator’s acceleration of our growth and more its customers’ basic needs of its to
success in the UAE, having doubled its adoption of the FWA 5G which helped more sophisticated requirements and
share in the broadband market to 30% us really to grow and increase our noted that this will be reflected when
and gained 10 points of value share in market share,” said Benkirane. the UAE’s digital economy doubles
the last three years due to the launch its contribution to the nation’s GDP in
of commercial FWA 5G services. He highlighted du’s growth and 2025, as projected.
repositioning in the broadband space
Benkirane hailed FWA as a “huge stemmed from enacting key strate- The company will first launch an FWA
opportunity” for growth. The executive gies to promote 5G FWA. The operator 5G packages aimed at gamers who
noted that the UAE’s fixed market is made 5G FWA competitive by cutting demand low latency high speed
“highly fibred”, and this presented a prices and targeting SMEs. connections. Next, the operator will
huge challenge for FWA to compete package its internet offerings with an
against established and reliable fixed The popularity of FWA 5G brought Android TV or set-up box.
services. du the challenge of high traffic on
its network, pushing the operator to On its enterprise side, du will develop
find a way to segregate FWA traffic, specific use-cases. Examples Ben-
kirane gave included connected cash
machines to enable banks to deploy
in remote locations, and equipping
enterprises with connectivity for them
to tap into reduced-capability (Red-
Cap) devices, as RedCap devices are
becoming more affordable.

“We believe that the strategy of build-
ing infrastructure with 5G-Advanced
technology, needs to be reviewed and
providers need to balance between
how much they want to invest on fibre
and on 5G-Advanced. We believe that
5G is going to deliver an experience
that will be close to or even match the
fibre experience.

“We are really excited about our jour-
ney, even though it has been a short
three years (since launching FWA 5G),
we believe that by moving from 5G to
5G SA, to 5G-Advanced that we are
halfway to 6G,” said Benkirane.

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