Recently, Etisalat Misr and Huawei Egypt have completed MENA’s first commercial deployment for FDD Massive MIMO solution over Etisalat 4G networks. Massive MIMO is one of the basic requirements for 5G as well. The peak cell throughput in trials has reached 516 Mbps using 15 MHz bandwidth, which it is 5 times faster if compared to the traditional 2T2R network. In view of the excellent results of FDD Massive MIMO, Etisalat Misr will cooperate with Huawei Egypt to deploy the FDD Massive MIMO in more traffic hotspot areas to deliver the best user experience in the region.
Etisalat Misr has the widest LTE coverage in Egypt, providing the best LTE experience for 3.5 million users. With the rapid development of services such as video and social applications, LTE network traffic grows at an average annual rate of 170%. Building an ultimate capacity layer became a major challenge for network development. FDD Massive MIMO uses a large-scale antenna array and the space division multiplexing technology to share the same time-frequency resources to multiple users, maximizing spectrum efficiency and improving user experience in hotspot areas. With the popularization of TM9 terminals, the capacity can be increased to 3~5 times. In addition, this solution is one of the key technologies in the future network.
Khalid Murshed, Chief Technology Officer of Etisalat Misr, said, “The rapid development of mobile network traffic is an opportunity and a challenge in the same time for operators but we are committed to providing the best mobile network experience for the Egyptian community. I’m glad to see the excellent performance of FDD Massive MIMO in the commercial network. The customers can enjoy very high throughput and network capacity can be tripled without new site and new spectrum. We will deploy this solution in more sites to enhance customers experience and cope with the challenges of future traffic growth.”
Chen Chuanfei, President of Huawei FDD LTE Product Line, said, “The Massive MIMO multi-antenna technology is one of the key solutions to improve the network capacity. It has high requirements for the overall structure design, power amplifier, heat dissipation, chips, and algorithms. With the continuous accumulation in these fields, Huawei takes the lead in putting the solution into commercial use in the industry and matching operator’s network development requirements. We hope to cooperate with global operators to build a high-quality network with ultimate capacity and excellent user experience, maximize the value of spectrum, and embrace the golden age of rapid MBB development with operators together.”
