UAE operator du has begun commercial end-to-end service over the upper 6 GHz band, what the carrier describes as the first deployment worldwide of U6GHz connectivity directly to paying subscribers. The activation, announced in Dubai, ties the operator's near-term spectrum work to the longer road toward 6G.

The U6GHz designation refers to the 6425–7125 MHz range, the centrepiece of an IMT identification debate now moving through the International Telecommunication Union. The block sits between existing 5 GHz Wi-Fi allocations and the lower 6 GHz holdings still used by satellite and fixed links across much of the Middle East. Operators in Europe, China and the Gulf have tested the band as a candidate for 5G-Advanced and, eventually, 6G.

du, formally Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, frames the customer trial as a pathfinding exercise. The operator has not disclosed device count, cell count, throughput measurements or geographic reach of the launch. Company material describes end-to-end operation across core, radio and customer premises, indicating the carrier is running the band alongside, not in place of, its commercial 5G mid-band network.

What does this change for UAE customers?

Little immediately. du has not published subscription pricing for U6GHz service and has not named compatible handsets. The exercise is pitched at regulators and equipment vendors, not at consumers. du framed the activation as evidence of the band's readiness, but stopped short of a date for mass-market tariff attachment.

What changes for the industry?

The upper 6 GHz decision is one of the few band questions still unsettled before the ITU's 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference. UAE regulators have previously supported the IMT path. A live commercial deployment, however narrow, gives that position testing data and political weight that simulators or laboratory work cannot. Vendors including Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia have built U6GHz prototypes; traffic from a paying customer is the harder evidence base procurement teams generally require.

What remains unclear

The release carries no timeline for converting the customer trial into a marketed tariff. du has not disclosed whether the spectrum sits under an existing commercial authorisation, an experimental permit, or a temporary grant. The duration of the activation and its renewal terms will decide whether du's claim becomes precedent or a one-off demonstration.

The operator will need device support to scale. Release 18 and Release 19 of the 3GPP specification touch the upper 6 GHz range, but commercial handsets carrying U6GHz radios are not yet shipping at volume. du's deployment provides the live-network evidence that chipset designers typically want before committing production lines.

What is the path forward?

du's announcement signals that the operator intends to remain visible in the 6G conversation well before standards are frozen. 3GPP study items on 6G are expected to begin in 2025, with formal specification work running through the late 2020s. A commercial U6GHz service, even at trial scale, places du among the small set of carriers holding operational data when regulators and vendors assemble the evidence base for the next spectrum cycle.