Nedaa to Launch 4G LTE for Mission-Critical Applications
Dubai Government entity to implement IoT into their networks this year.
Specialised communications provider Nedaa will roll out 4G long-term evolution (LTE) networks for private mission-critical operations in Dubai by end of year, a top official has told Gulf News, a local UAE newspaper .
Mansour Juma Bu Osaiba, CEO of Nedaa, said phases one and two of the rollout would cover 45 base stations each and, by the end of the year,
Mansour Juma Bu Osaiba: “We will have about 140 base stations to cover the entire Dubai. It is difficult to get the bandwidth required to run mission critical applications on commercial networks. So, it has to move to the private networks to get the required bandwidth.The standard for public safety was released by 3GPP, with improvements to some features every year. We are ready for 5G in terms of infrastructure, the network needs minor fine-tuning but we have not yet got the spectrum allocated from the TRA,” .
Bu Osaiba said that Nedaa is moving towards implementing internet of Things (IoT) in their networks in the fourth quarter of this year.
“Dubai is at forefront of implementing smart transformation initiatives to enhance citizen experiences. We are showcasing a wide array of sensors, IoT and Machine to Machine (M2M) solutions to strengthen digitalised communications in the emirate,” he said.
Moreover, he said that the data collected from M2M, primarily used for service management applications, can be integrated with IoT devices to provide more streamlined services, intelligent systems and secure network communications that fully realise the competitive advantage for a smart city.
When asked about the security of IoT devices, he said: “When we designed our network, we designed it from a security perspective. Our network is private and not connected to external agencies. All the devices have to be pre-approved before getting into the network and security layer will be added on to the devices and to the network.”
In addition to all of this, Nedaa is studying the use of blockchain technology into its network as an additional layer of security measure
