What’s up with… RAN evolution, Verizon, Nscale

• Middle East operators push the RAN boundaries
• Verizon wants to test ISAC in the 4 GHz band  
• Neocloud Nscale files for an IPO

In today’s industry news roundup: Multiple Middle Eastern operators, including du, e& UAE and Ooredoo Kuwait, are finding ways to get more out of their 5G networks as they prepare for the 6G era; Verizon requests a temporary 4 GHz licence so it can test some pre-6G integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) applications; AI infrastructure operator Nscale applies to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange; and much more!

Using Nokia’s commercial Habrok massive MIMO radio units, United Arab Emirates (UAE) telco Du is claiming to have become the first mobile operator in the world to deploy six-carrier aggregation capabilities on its commercial 5G-Advanced network, “successfully aggregating six 5G New Radio (NR) component carriers across frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) spectrum”. The achievement, combining 420 MHz of spectrum bandwidth, was validated on the latest generation of end user devices, noted Du in this announcement. “The milestone was achieved on Du’s commercial 5G-Advanced standalone network under real-world field conditions, using spectrum across the 3.6 GHz, 2.6 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 600 MHz bands,” stated the operator, which added that the move is also “contributing to the development of the network capabilities required for the UAE’s transition towards 6G and its wider ambitions for advanced digital infrastructure”. Saleem AlBlooshi, chief technology officer at Du, said: “Bringing six CC 5G carriers together on our commercial network is an important milestone in how we are building the next generation of connectivity in the UAE. This achievement demonstrates how we can make greater use of our spectrum to create more capacity and deliver stronger network performance as customer needs evolve. It also represents an important step in advancing our 5G+ network while building the foundations for the journey towards 6G, in line with the UAE’s ambitions for next-generation connectivity.”

Still in the Middle East… With vital decisions set to be made about how to evolve mobile communications services and lay the foundations that will make 6G a success for end users, service providers and technology developers alike, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), network operator e& UAE, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, and NYU Abu Dhabi have jointly published a new whitepaper, The Golden 6 GHz Band, which the authors claim presents “engineering evidence that Upper 6 GHz (U6GHz) can carry significantly more traffic than today’s mid-band spectrum using existing cell sites”. The publication of the whitepaper accompanies the UAE’s move to bring the “golden band” of U6GHz from trials into commercial use, “paving the way for faster, higher-capacity wireless connectivity and future 6G services in the UAE,” according to the partners. The TDRA has allocated e& UAE with capacity in the 6425-6775 MHz range, providing up to 350 MHz of contiguous spectrum. “That regulatory clarity enabled e& UAE to proceed with its commercial 256TRX Giga-MIMO deployment, which is designed to deliver peak downlink speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s and is slated for launch in the second half of 2026,” the partners noted in the whitepaper. Marwan Bin Shakar, CTO at e& UAE, noted: “Moving from trial to commercial deployment is a significant engineering step. The value for our customers is significantly higher speeds, greater capacity and a far more consistent, reliable experience even in the highest-traffic areas. We are publishing our results alongside our partners so the wider industry can assess them."

And yet more RAN advances from the region… Ooredoo Kuwait claims to have “achieved a new milestone in 5G-Advanced innovation” by being the first operator in the Middle East to successfully demonstrate 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (1024QAM) combined with 8×8 multiple-input multiple-output (8×8 MIMO) on a live network. “The demonstration was conducted on Ooredoo Kuwait’s live 5G-Advanced network using commercially available devices and existing spectrum resources,” noted the operator in this announcement, adding that “live network testing showed that combining 1024QAM with 8-layer single-user MIMO (8×8 MIMO) more than doubled peak throughput, delivering an approximately 108% improvement compared with the conventional 256QAM and 4×4 MIMO configuration under suitable radio conditions.” The results were achieved using Huawei’s commercially available CPE Ultra 6 end user router devices, “further demonstrating the capabilities and readiness of Ooredoo Kuwait’s network,” stated the operator. 

Verizon has requested a short-term licence from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for capacity in the 4 GHz band to test sensing applications. The operator is seeking “an experimental authorisation to use the 4.8-4.9 GHz band (B79A) in and around its lab in Los Angeles, California,” stated the telco, noting that the “request is temporary, expiring one year from grant”. Verizon says it needs the spectrum to “test Ericsson software and hardware in a noncommercial environment” so the telco can “demonstrate 5G-Advanced technology use cases such as object sensing as a precursor to 6G integrated sensing and communication (ISAC). This work will facilitate the adoption of use cases across commercial, public safety and defence sectors,” noted Verizon, which recently expanded its 6G Innovation Forum, an initiative in which Ericsson was one of the initial partners. ISAC development is at the heart of Verizon’s current pre-6G testing programme, as the operator’s CTO Yago Tenorio explained during a recent conversation with TelecomTV – see Verizon’s CTO senses a 6G opportunity.

UK-based AI infrastructure operator Nscale, which is working with BT on the development of sovereign AI datacentres and which counts Dell Technologies, Nokia and Nvidia among its financial backers, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. There is no indication currently about how much it is aiming to raise from the process. In its filing, the neocloud company, which competes with the likes of CoreWeave, Nebius, Crusoe and Lambda, noted that while it generated revenues of $140.6m, and recorded a net loss of just over $1bn, during the first six months of this year, its business is growing rapidly. At the end of August, it had secured contracts worth $103.4bn, though only $2.6bn worth of those deals are currently active as it continues to build out its facilities and scale up its operations around the world. Among its major customers are AI developer Anthropic and Microsoft, according to reports.  In a letter to prospective shareholders that featured in the SEC filing, founder and CEO Josh Payne noted: “In only two and a half years, we have scaled from $100m in total contracted value to over $103bn. Our power pipeline has grown from 750 MW to 10 GW+ owned and controlled. Our team has grown from 40 to over 1,000. We’ve expanded our customer base and now operate in 14 regions. Each milestone is built on the last, and we are just getting started.” While the company was valued at $14.6bn when it raised money from current investors in March this year, Reuters noted that it is believed to be targeting an IPO valuation of around $30bn. 

Tapping into the roaming needs of Germans, Deutsche Telekom has launched T-Travel, an eSIM-based service that allows travellers to book mobile data packages for more than 200 destinations and activate them directly on an eSIM-enabled device, regardless of their current mobile provider.

The Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) cable system consortium is upgrading its network, which links western Europe, West Africa, and South Africa, using technology from optical systems vendor Ciena. Stretching approximately 17,000km across 18 landing stations, the cable operator’s network is being bolstered by the deployment of Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e)-based 6500 optical platform, which is capable of enabling network capacity of more than 30 Tbit/s. Philippe Recco, president of the ACE Management Committee, noted in this announcement: “International routes drive economic growth, digital inclusion and cloud adoption across Africa, and this upgrade gives regional service providers a high-capacity path that reaches more than 500 million people. Ciena’s coherent optical technology and proven services team give us confidence that we can keep customers connected while meeting expanding bandwidth needs.” Expect to hear a lot about optical networking developments and deployments this week as the annual ECOC exhibition and conference is underway in Málaga, Spain. 

– The staff, TelecomTV