Huawei hosts dedicated round table on 3.5 GHz LTE in the Middle East

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, has concluded its first ever Middle East 3.5GHz Roundtable hosted in Dubai, UAE, as a platform for industry leaders to collaborate on the development of the 3.5 GHz frequency ecosystem for mobile broadband.

Participating in the roundtable were leading operators from across the MENA region such as Etisalat, du, Zain, PTCL, Mobilink, Menatelecom, ITC, Umniah, and MTNI, as well as other industry heavyweights including Intel, Sequence Communications, Broadcom, Gemtek, Augere, and Wi-Tribe.

The one-day Middle East roundtable focused on how to accelerate the development and maturity of the 3.5GHz industry chain through an in-depth exploration of key requirements of operators today. The agenda included debate about the unique role that 3.5GHz spectrum has in the Middle East, the status of regulations concerning the 3.5 GHz spectrum, how to develop mobile backhaul for 3.5 GHz, and what the 3.5GHz WiMAX to LTE revolution means for operators and their subscribers alike. Global harmonization of the 3.5 GHz spectrum was further emphasized to support the sharing of the same ecosystem—particularly for chipsets and terminal devices.

“We have seen great progress in the development of the 3.5 GHz ecosystem globally and believe that the coming year will be an exciting period for the Middle East with new commercial launches and more consumers benefitting from mobile and fixed wireless services using 3.5 GHz LTE technologies,” notes Mr. Pan En, Vice President of Huawei Middle East.

The roundtable was the first such event dedicated to the regional market and organized with the support of Mr. Philip Marnick, Chairman of the 3.5GHz Interest Group, building on the success of the 6^th Edition of 3.5GHz Roundtable held at Mobile World Congress 2013 this spring.

In June 2012, the 3.5 GHz Interest Group was formally established in Hangzhou, China, with Huawei elected as the first group Secretary. Membership of the Interest Group has rapidly expanded to include members from every continent. Since its founding, the 3.5 GHz Interest Group has helped established large bandwidth bands 42 and 43 as core LTE TDD bands due to their ability to satisfy significant increases in data traffic demands.

Huawei has helped drive the development of 3.5GHz network infrastructure and the commercial viability of compatible chipsets and devices on the global level. Just last year, Huawei launched the world’s first commercial 3.5GHz LTE TDD network in partnership with UK Broadband.