Du, one of the two major operators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has selected GPON solutions from Ericsson for its rollout of a Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in the country.

Du has been rolling out its FTTH network to many new developments within the city of Dubai, enabling it to offer superfast broadband services and its IPTV service ‘du TV’, as well as telephony.

Ericsson’s Deep Fiber Access solution has been chosen for the project, consisting of Ericsson’s EDA 1500 GPON solution, passive optical components, system integration and related services.

The UAE has become a hive of activity for fibre broadband rollouts in recent years, with Etisalat (the other major operator in the country) making Abu Dhabi the first city in the world to achieve 100 per cent coverage with Fibre-to-the-Home.

Etisalat also intends to pursue the same copper-to-fibre migration strategy in other emirates within its geographical fixed broadband footprint, with another enormous investment of AED7 billion ($1.91 billion).

The UAE currently has one of the highest household penetration rates for fixed broadband services in the world, with 90 per cent – almost eight times the regional average.