Article written by Ibrahim Abdelrahman Alkhayyal, MBA Student
Etisalat, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, is one of the largest corporations in the GCC. It provides all kinds of internet, mobile and Television packages. It has many firsts to its credit in GCC and in the world. It has the largest number of customers in UAE and provides widest coverage of 3G and 4G technologies. It also is the first corporation to 4G+LTE network. Moving ahead, it recently started focusing on 5G superfast networks. It tested the 5G through a trial and has been successful. The company claims it to be world’s fastest live trial of 5G. This technology is the next step in the high-speed mobile broadband services. The objective of 5G is provide customers with highly efficient, faster, cover more customers and cover more devices. At the same, it maintains the lowest levels of carbon footprint and causes absolutely no harm to the environmental aspects. Introduction of 5G will impact TV, Media, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Transportation, Infrastructure and education sectors (Schools, Colleges and Universities) which will in turn impact all the other dependent sectors.
Etisalat recently completed deployment of 5G and conducted a live trial of its pre-commercial 5G mobile technology using millimeter wave operating over e-band through 2GHz of bandwidth and a massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology. The live trial reached the highest speed of 71 Gbps, a global record in the industry.
The 5G technology enables the concept of ‘global computing’. Through this the user can access the services from multi platforms from any location and at any time. It provides a great facility to customers to use application simultaneously in many platforms at a time with high speed. The 5G technology also aids in developing smart cities and enables digitization of all user services. It is expected that this technology is also going to develop the ‘Internet of Things’ at revolutionary speed. The utility services provided by the government and all the other private services are going to have a total transformation due to this technology. Etisalat is going to be the first corporation to initiate and implement the 5G network in UAE by 2020. The proposed investment on the required infrastructure and other supporting activities is expected to be around AED 3 Billion. This investment will be distributed across activities like upgradation of mobile network, installation of robotics technology and artificial intelligence.
Therefore, to conclude, in the next couple of years, UAE is going to witness a dramatic impact of 5G technology on all kinds of services offered to the citizens which can be customized as per their requirement. In future, it will be very interesting to watch not only customers interacting with each but also all the ‘things’ interacting with each other. 5G of Etisalat will become a way of life in UAE. In addition to all this, 5G will enable reduction of pollution and expenditure on usage of paper-based transaction and services by providing energy efficiency and ease and comfort. The 5G technology also benefits higher level, quality conscious technology and management educational institutions like Skyline University. The university can become completely a digital university and offer wide variety of programs in the areas of Information Technology and Management at BBA and MBA levels and also BS(IT) level. This technology also helps in offering diploma courses in various fields like tourism and travel.