e& advances 5.5G rollout with region’s first four-carrier aggregation on smartphones

Government

e& advances 5.5G rollout with region’s first four-carrier aggregation on smartphones

e& UAE has announced a major milestone in the evolution of its live 5.5G network with the commercial deployment of four-carrier aggregation (4-CA) on smartphones, marking the first implementation of its kind in the region.

The new capability combines Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum, allowing compatible smartphones to simultaneously utilise four carriers within the same network. This significantly enhances speed, reliability and overall user experience, particularly in high-traffic areas.

According to e& UAE, the FDD-TDD aggregation delivers peak downlink speeds exceeding 4Gbps on supported devices, while maintaining consistent performance through FDD’s wider and more resilient coverage. The approach also boosts network capacity and efficiency by pairing the extensive reach of FDD spectrum with the high-throughput capabilities of TDD.

The development enables improved performance for bandwidth-intensive applications such as 8K video streaming, cloud gaming and advanced enterprise connectivity. Achieving these speeds on commercially available smartphones highlights growing ecosystem readiness and accelerates the path towards mass adoption of 5.5G-Advanced services.

The announcement follows a series of recent network breakthroughs by e& UAE, including achieving 600Mbps uplink speeds on a live 5G network, reinforcing the operator’s focus on advancing both downlink and uplink performance in line with global 3GPP standards.

Abdulrahman Al Humaidan, Senior Vice President for Access Network Development at e& UAE, said the milestone reflects the company’s long-term investment in advanced spectrum assets and next-generation technologies. He noted that the enhancement strengthens the live 5.5G network with sustained multi-gigabit speeds, improved capacity and reliable coverage across diverse environments.

The four-carrier aggregation capability is currently live in select areas, with a wider rollout planned across the e& UAE network in 2026 and beyond. Anchoring the solution on FDD spectrum also ensures seamless support for Voice over New Radio (VoNR) services, while aggregated TDD capacity delivers ultra-high data speeds.

As part of its future-ready strategy, e& UAE continues to collaborate with leading technology vendors and device manufacturers to expand the availability of 5.5G-Advanced features across smartphones and accelerate deployment timelines, supporting the ongoing transition of 4G spectrum to 5G.