In a global first, etisalat UAE has become the first operator to commercially launch 2×2 uplink MIMO with carrier aggregation for smartphones.

The new capability enables up to three times upload speed for compatible smart phones exclusively on etisalat UAE’s 5.5G network, an Emirates News Agency (WAM) report said. 

The technology enables greater capacity and bandwidth to communicate and upload high-resolution photos, share videos, send large files faster, and use a growing range of AI-powered applications more quickly.

Two streams of data simultaneously

The 2×2 uplink MIMO sends two streams of data simultaneously, while carrier aggregation combines network capacity across different frequency bands. 

Together, these technologies allow the device to send more data at once and increase upload performance.

Marwan Bin Shakar, Chief Technology Officer, etisalat UAE, said: “Mobile experiences are changing. Smartphones are no longer primarily consuming content; they are creating, sharing and increasingly sending richer data to AI and cloud applications in real time. That changes what we need from the network. By bringing this capability to smartphones for the first time globally, we are increasing upload capacity where it matters and ensuring our 5.5G network is ready for how customers will use their devices next.”

Richer content

The advancement comes as the latest smartphones are increasingly designed around richer content, cloud services and AI capabilities. Many of these experiences depend not only on how quickly a phone can receive information, but also on how quickly it can send it.

For example, when a user asks AI assistant to interpret an image, analyse a document or respond to what their camera is seeing, that content first needs to be uploaded. Getting greater upload capacity can get that content to the cloud faster, helping make these interactions more responsive.—TradeArabia News Service