e& UAE has commercially launched an Upper 6GHz mobile network designed to deliver single-user download speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, adding capacity to its existing infrastructure as the country prepares for future 6G services.
The operator describes it as the world’s first commercial mobile network using Upper 6GHz spectrum with 256TRX Giga-MIMO technology.
Customers are not being offered a fully developed 6G network. The deployment runs over e& UAE’s existing 5.5G infrastructure, also known as 5G-Advanced, and forms part of its preparations for the next generation of mobile communications. The September announcement marks a move into commercial operation, updating earlier plans and trials.
Marwan bin Shakar, Chief Technology Officer of e& UAE, said: "The commercial activation of U6GHz 256TRX Giga-MIMO marks a defining milestone in e& UAE’s network evolution. We have moved from technical validation to a live commercial reality that significantly elevates the 5G-Advanced experience for our customers today, while operationalising the native architecture needed for 6G. This achievement directly underpins the UAE’s vision to remain the world's most advanced digital hub, supported by world-class infrastructure and next-generation connectivity."
A Rollout Built on Earlier Work
The commercial launch follows an announcement in June, when the company said it had awarded a contract to an infrastructure partner for the deployment. At that stage, commercial service was scheduled to begin during the second half of 2026.
The June release outlined the same combination of Upper 6GHz spectrum and 256TRX Giga-MIMO, with planned peak speeds of 10 Gbps for downloads and 1 Gbps for uploads. It also identified higher capacity in busy urban areas as a deployment objective, alongside more accurate beamforming and improved interference management.
Earlier testing had already demonstrated the potential of the frequency band. Earlier in 2025 e& UAE reported speeds of up to 10 Gbps by combining 6GHz spectrum with other mobile bands through commercial-grade customer premises equipment.
Antenna Technology Adds Capacity
The new deployment uses frequencies between 6425 and 6775 MHz, giving e& UAE up to 350 MHz of contiguous bandwidth. Its 256TRX Giga-MIMO system expands the antenna’s transmitting and receiving capabilities compared with conventional 64TRX configurations.
Research published by NYU Abu Dhabi on September 24 describes 256TRX as an antenna system with 256 active transmit and receive channels. Those channels allow more precise signal transmission and greater overall capacity. The findings were published jointly with the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, e& UAE and Khalifa University.
The study modeled roughly three times the cell capacity when comparing 200 MHz of Upper 6GHz spectrum with a 100 MHz C-band carrier. That estimate combined twice the bandwidth with an approximately 1.5-fold improvement in spectral efficiency. The researchers explicitly cautioned that these were modeled results under stated assumptions, with commercial performance dependent on deployment conditions, spectrum assignments and device capabilities.
Reusing existing sites is a central part of the deployment’s potential business case. The joint research describes an approach that can use existing tower and rooftop locations, power supplies and supporting infrastructure, with backhaul connections upgraded where necessary. It says this could reduce the need for additional sites and lower the cost of carrying each bit of data as capacity expands.
International 6G Standards Are Still Developing
The wider standards process helps explain why this launch remains a 5G-Advanced development. The ITU reported in March 2026 that its experts had agreed on draft performance requirements for IMT-2030, the international designation for 6G. These requirements provide a basis for evaluating proposed technologies.
The ITU’s framework covers more than faster downloads. Its proposed scenarios include immersive communications, highly reliable low-latency connections, widespread connectivity, artificial intelligence and integrated sensing. The standards work therefore concerns a broader set of capabilities than a single network’s peak speed.
Under the ITU’s published development schedule, candidate radio technologies are due for consideration from early 2027, with final standards targeted for approval by 2030. e& UAE’s deployment precedes that process.
