Nokia will deploy its Multi-Access Gateway (MAG) to provide 4G/5G fixed wireless access (FWA) for du customers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Nokia said du is the first in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market to deploy Nokia’s MAG for FWA broadband services for smart home, IoT and office applications, in addition to mobile services. Besides MAG, du will use the Nokia FastMile 5G gateways and Nokia professional services.
FWA is one of the most successful use cases for 5G. In the U.S., T-Mobile and Verizon are pitching internet services using FWA and their mobile networks.
In a report last month, Nokia said 5G FWA in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and 4G FWA in the rest of the Middle East and Africa region are among the most attractive use cases, with a “significant opportunity” for operators to drive incremental revenues. GCC countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
FWA will enable du to add new revenue streams with Gigabit speeds and low latency for “innovative and immersive” broadband applications, according to Nokia. It allows du to offload fixed-wireless broadband traffic from its mobile core network and improve service scalability, subscriber coverage and time to market.
“Fixed-wireless access is a vital and highly effective initiative, enabling us to provide cutting-edge use cases such as smart home and IoT solutions to our valued subscribers,” said du Chief Technology Officer Saleem AlBlooshi in a statement. “As a trailblazer in this domain, du takes immense pride in being the first in the MEA region to implement this ground-breaking solution.”