UAE Considers 700 MHz for Public-Safety Broadband Spectrum

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) set aside spectrum in the 700 and 800 MHz bands for broadband services and said 2 by 10 megahertz of spectrum could be set aside for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) applications.
This sets the stage for potential interoperability with the United States for public-safety broadband.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced its band plan for 700 MHz and released spectrum in the 800 MHz band for mobile broadband services. “The TRA believes that allocating these bands to mobile broadband with the equivalent global device ecosystems will best serve the UAE public interest, driving down costs and minimizing interference along borders,” a statement said.

By combining the 800 MHz band plan for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with the lower duplexer (2 by 30 megahertz) as a baseline of the Asia Pacific (APT) 700 MHz band, UAE will be the first country in the region to reap the benefits of both bands, which will support affordable network rollout, benefiting more of the population with mobile broadband connectivity, the regulator said.

In addition to the possibility for an additional 2 by 10 megahertz for PPDR applications, 5 megahertz has also been considered for direct mode operation (DMO) for public-safety applications.

"By maximizing the spectrum for mobile broadband in harmony with the growing economies of scale for both bands, the TRA decision will enable nearly global interoperability and roaming,” said H.E. Majed Al Mesmar, deputy director general for telecommunications sector. “The UAE is predicting a rising demand for global harmonization of the APT 700 MHz band benefiting in the growing ecosystem of devices from Asia Pacific across the Middle East and Africa, through to Latin America.”