Regulation

Egypt’s NTRA announces 6GHz first for Africa

Egypt’s NTRA announces 6GHz first for Africa

The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) has announced Africa’s first trial of mobile services using the 6GHz band.

Carried out in cooperation with operator Telecom Egypt and tech giant Huawei, the successful completion of the first trial in Africa to operate mobile services using the 6GHz band apparently makes Egypt the first nation in Africa to test this advanced frequency band for mobile communications. Howewer, the announcement does specify the upper part of the spectrum – U6GHz or 6.425–7.125GHz – rather than the whole of the 6GHz range (5.9 – 7.1GHz).

The trial included operating Egypt’s first mobile base station using the 6GHz band and conducting the first data call over this spectrum. It reported achieved data transfer speeds of approximately 1.7 Gbps per user, underscoring the band’s potential to deliver ultra-fast speeds, expand network capacity, and enhance service quality particularly in areas with high traffic density.

NTRA says this initiative reflects ongoing efforts to study and test cutting edge global technologies, while ensuring the optimal use of spectrum resources as a vital national asset. It added that the trial also strengthens Egypt’s readiness to adopt future technologies and reinforces its pioneering role in spectrum management across Africa.

The use of the 6GHz band is seen as supporting data-intensive future applications such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality, and cloud computing.

Eng Mohamed Shamroukh, NTRA’s Executive President, declared that the U6GHz is one of the strategic frequency ranges included in Egypt’s long term national spectrum plan (2030–2035), currently under preparation.

Not everyone sees 6GHz as a way forward for cellular however. India, for example, seems set to free up the lower part for Wi-Fi, and in the US the entire 1200MHz of the 6GHz band has apparently been set aside exclusively for license-free Wi-Fi use.

Indeed the debate over the use of 6GHz for Wi-Fi and cellular looks set to rumble on as different countries adopt different policies.



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