Inside e&’s GITEX 2025 pavilion: Where 5.5G meets real life

Abu Dhabi: Step into e&’s pavilion at GITEX 2025 and you won’t find generic displays about gigabit speeds or bandwidth. Instead, you’ll see how a 5.5G body-worn camera can help a firefighter stream live video from a disaster zone, or how augmented-reality (AR) glasses can enable an offshore oil worker to receive remote assistance 80 kilometres out at sea.

You’ll also see a surgical robot operated with millimetre-level precision over a private network slice fully dedicated to that procedure.

Speaking to Gulf News about the latest communications and information-transfer technologies, Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO of e&, provided a detailed explanation of what the next generation of connectivity means for healthcare, oil and gas workers, manufacturing, and the leap toward sixth-generation (6G) technology.

“For years, 5.5G was framed in terms of latency, throughput, and spectrum, not what it would actually enable... Now we’re seeing what it means when someone's life is on the line, or when a factory needs to operate 24/7 without a single dropped connection. That's what 5.5G-Advanced, is really about,” says Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO of e&.

Comprehensive solutions for business-critical processes

Network slicing sounds technical, but Dowidar explains it simply as an enterprise solution for organizations that cannot afford network congestion: “Think of it as dedicated highway lanes for business-critical operations. When an ambulance service or police department subscribes to a network slice, their entire fleet gets guaranteed, seamless or continuous connectivity with their own reserved capacity on our network. Even when thousands of people around them are streaming videos or making calls, those body cameras and push-to-talk systems never compete for bandwidth.”

e& is the region's first to launch commercial 5.5G network slicing

This year, e& UAE became the region's first to launch commercial 5.5G network slicing, offering businesses predefined bandwidth packages tailored to specific use cases. The technology partitions e&'s standalone 5.5G network into multiple virtual networks, each with dedicated resources isolated from other traffic.

“Across industries, operations that depend on precise timing and resilient connectivity for robotics coordination, real-time ports logistics, and mission-critical public safety, are moving to guaranteed low-latency networks,” Dowidar notes. “It bridges the gap between standard 5.5G and building an entire private network, giving businesses the reliability they need without the infrastructure investment,” Dowidar says.

"At GITEX, e& is demonstrating this with its 5.5G-in-a-Box tactical network, a portable private network that first responders can deploy at disaster sites within minutes. There's also a 5.5G-enabled drone platform that extends mission-critical video and analytics to aerial assets, providing real-time situational awareness for firefighting, perimeter security, and search-and-rescue operations," he added.

The value and the safety

e& has deployed similar systems with UAE authorities. Real-time visibility cuts decision cycles and helps teams allocate resources faster where they’re needed most.

The same principle applies in industrial settings, but here the value is about operational continuity as well as safety. e& is showcasing a digital wellhead system developed with ADNOC that monitors oil extraction equipment across 11,000 square kilometres of offshore and desert operations. Sensors on wellheads transmit pressure, temperature, and flow data through industrial gateways, while autonomous inspection robots patrol facilities checking for leaks or equipment anomalies.

“An oil rig used to be an information island,” Dowidar explains. “Now, with private 5.5G and edge computing, an engineer in Abu Dhabi can see real-time diagnostics from every piece of equipment on a platform 200 kilometres offshore.” On site, workers can wear ATEX-certified AR helmets that overlay safety data, equipment manuals, and remote expert guidance directly into their field of vision without touching a device with gloved hands.

He adds: "While 5.5G-Advanced ups the ante on 5.5G, e& is already building toward 6G. At GITEX, the company is unveiling research from its IEEE Federated 5.5G/6G Innovation Testbed, a collaborative platform with academic and industry partners exploring what comes next. In keeping with academic-industry collaboration, e& UAE and NYU Abu Dhabi conducted the Middle East's first 6G terahertz pilot, achieving throughput speeds that surpass what current networks can deliver; a critical step toward enabling the ultra-low-latency applications that 6G promises."

Pressed by Gulf News on why e& is demoing 6G concepts now, Dowidar is direct: “Waiting for everyone to finish 5.5G before starting 6G is how you fall behind. The UAE’s ambition is to pioneer and then scale technologies that benefit billions.”

“And it goes beyond performance speed,” Dowidar insists. “6G is about integrated sensing and communications with networks that can simultaneously transmit data and sense the environment around them. Our XG ISAC prototype at GITEX demonstrates exactly this capability.”

Sensors verify your identity by the way you walk

The implications span from mundane to extraordinary – sensors that can verify your identity through how you walk; that can detect structural stress in buildings before they fail; that enable holographic telepresence so realistic you'll forget the person isn't physically there.

e& is showing volumetric holographic displays at GITEX; 3D images that float in space and can be viewed from any angle. “That's not science fiction. It's possible today with 5.5G-Advanced. With 6G's capacity, these experiences will be as common as video calls are now,” Dowidar says.

Today, e& is fundamentally different and it shows at the pavilion. Over three years ago, it was a telecommunications operator. Now, it's a global technology group with connectivity as one of several pillars alongside fintech, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI.

Now at its fourth GITEX as e&, Dowidar emphasises, “The rebranding distilled who we are and what we do next. It reflected a fundamental shift in how we create value. Connectivity is the foundation, but what matters is what you build on top.”

e& Group's Sovereign AI Infrastructure

And at GITEX, visitors will see the Group’s sovereign AI infrastructure, its Help AG cyber command dashboard monitoring threats in real-time, thee& money platform handling thousands of transactions daily, and investee companies like Fuze enabling digital asset infrastructure for banks.

The transformation shows in the footprint too. e& has expanded from its traditional Middle East base into 38countries across Asia, Africa, and now Europe through strategic investments in Vodafone and e& PPF Telecom Group."

“Geographic expansion is about scale and knowledge transfer,” Dowidar says. “We test innovations in the UAE's advanced digital environment, then deploy them across our footprint. And we bring back learnings from markets like Pakistan, Egypt, and Morocco where we've had to innovate under resource constraints.”

The Group’s financial performance validates the strategy. The company has maintained strong revenue growth while successfully diversifying beyond traditional telecom services, with newer business lines contributing an increasingly significant share of overall performance. Crucially, inclusion remains a design principle and e& is directing its AI, cloud, and cybersecurity capabilities toward solutions that expand access and agency for all customers.

That’s why some of the most compelling demonstrations at e&’s GITEX stand focus on accessibility. There's a robotic prosthetic arm, affordable and lightweight, designed for people of determination. Telehealth-enabled rehabilitation technologies that bring neurological therapy to patients who can't reach clinics. AI-powered diagnostic tools that can detect COPD, perform retinal scans, and assess cognitive health using just a smartphone.

The AI telemedicine technology we're demonstrating turns an ambulance into a mobile ICU

“This is what excites me most about 5G-Advanced and the AI revolution,” Dowidar reflects. “These technologies aren't designed to serve the privileged few. An AI telemedicine system we're showcasing can turn any ambulance into a mobile ICU, with specialists remotely guiding paramedics through complex procedures. That levels the playing field between urban hospitals and remote areas.”

The same democratising force applies to business. e& is demonstrating AI tools specifically designed for small and medium enterprises like ready-to-use applications for inventory management, customer analytics, and workflow automation that previously required massive IT departments.

The robots on display can autonomously audit retail shelves, detecting stock-outs and pricing errors. There’s also AI agents that handle appointment scheduling, insurance verification, and documentation for medical clinics. These aren't solutions for Fortune 500 companies. They're accessible to any business with an internet connection and a subscription.

While e& is showcasing cutting-edge technology, Dowidar is candid about the challenge it creates: “Every new service, every AI model, every connected device increases energy consumption. We can't ignore that.”

e&'s approach combines network efficiency with renewable energy investments. The company has committed to the UAE's carbon neutrality goals for 2050, implementing energy-efficient equipment in network operations and data centres while investing in clean energy sources.

“Smart networks can expand capacity and lower emissions at the same time; our 200G PON fibretechnology uses less power per bit than previous generations while delivering vastly more capacity,” Dowidar explains. “And our edge computing architecture(MX Industrial Edge, or MXIE) processes data closer to where it's generated rather than routing everything to distant data centres. That reduces both latency and energy consumption.”

e&'s message at GITEX: technology must work for more people

As GITEX unfolds, e&'s message is clear: technology must work for more people, in real life, for real public benefit. The 5G-Advanced networks being deployed today aren't preparing for some distant future; they're solving real problems for real people right now.

“We’re helping GITEX-goers see and understandworking systems like the autonomous delivery drones preparing for commercial operation in UAE skies. The private 5G networks running in factories, ports, and offshore platforms across the region.”

Looking ahead to 6G and beyond, Dowidar's vision remains grounded: “The question isn't 'how fast can we make the network?' It's 'what can we enable people to do?' Whether that's a surgeon performing a procedure from another continent, a student accessing world-class education from a remote village, or a first responder saving lives with tools that were impossible five years ago, that's the technology worth building.”

At GITEX 2025, e& isn't just demonstrating where connectivity is going. It's showing where it already is andthe technology that already matters for everyone.