e& UAE is deploying Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme optics and software across a new DWDM network, pushing per-wavelength capacity to 1.6 Tb/s ahead of what the operator describes as surging demand from hyperscalers, neoscalers and data centre operators.
The build-out is a response to the UAE’s data centre expansion. Capacity is expected to grow 165% between 2025 and 2028, per Emirates NBD research cited in the announcement.
The deployment combines Ciena’s Reconfigurable Line System and Waveserver platform, powered by WaveLogic 6 Extreme 1.6Tb/s coherent optics, with the Navigator Network Control Suite for end-to-end visibility and automation. It extends a long-standing partnership: e& UAE was the first operator in the Middle East and Africa to run WaveLogic 6 when it doubled per-wavelength capacity in February 2025.
“This new DWDM network represents a significant step forward in the capacity and scalability of our infrastructure, helping the region respond to rapidly growing bandwidth demand,” said Marwan Bin Shakar, chief technology officer at e& UAE. “We selected Ciena because of its proven leadership in high-capacity optical networking and its ability to deliver scalable, resilient and low-latency infrastructure.”
Brodie Gage, chief product and technology officer at Ciena, said the Middle East is seeing a surge in bandwidth demand from advanced digital applications, and that e& UAE’s network “will transform the region and help position the company to stay ahead of today’s and tomorrow’s evolving digital requirements.”
For most subscribers this is infrastructure news — the kind of announcement that rarely changes what a home broadband plan costs. Its significance is downstream: a backbone that moves 1.6 Tb/s per wavelength is what lets data centres actually run the workloads the UAE is betting on.
What it means for the UAE
The UAE’s data centre build-out is the driver. The operator already backs the country’s AI push — it is training 30,000 people in AI skills with AWS and building an AI centre of excellence with Intel — and its 5G network tops Ookla’s AI benchmarks, with e& leading on upload. The DWDM rollout is the transport layer underneath all of it: more data centre capacity means more traffic between them, and between them and the cloud.
It also matters for businesses buying connectivity. Wholesale and enterprise demand from hyperscalers is what pays for upgrades like this; the capacity those customers consume is the same pipe that carries everyone else’s traffic, and the more headroom it has, the less likely peak demand turns into congestion.
What is a DWDM network?
DWDM stands for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing. It sends many different wavelengths of light down a single optical fibre, multiplying how much data the fibre can carry without laying new cable. It is the backbone technology long-distance and metro telecom networks use to move huge volumes of traffic.
What are hyperscalers and neoscalers?
Hyperscalers are the large cloud providers that run global infrastructure at massive scale — names like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Neoscalers are smaller, newer cloud and data centre operators that are growing quickly. Both are heavy buyers of high-capacity connectivity like the network e& UAE is building.
Will this change home broadband speeds?
Not directly. This upgrade adds backbone capacity for data centres, cloud providers and enterprise traffic. Home broadband runs on a different part of the network, although more backbone capacity helps absorb peak demand and keeps latency low as data centre traffic grows.
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