UAE 6G Trial 145 Gbps: Why Legacy Copper Cabling Can’t Handle the Next-Gen Network

The UAE’s 145 Gbps 6G trial, led by Etisalat by e&, marks a global benchmark in network speed and connectivity.
But this breakthrough goes far beyond wireless communication — it’s a wake-up call for every Dubai business still running on outdated copper networks.

Even the most advanced copper cabling standards — Cat 7 and Cat 8 — cannot handle 6G-level data throughput. These cables struggle with signal loss, heat buildup, and bandwidth limitations, especially across longer distances.
When cable runs exceed 20 meters, SFP-to-RJ45 adapters overheat, causing link throttling, CRC errors, and network dropouts during heavy data transfers.

The next-generation 6G infrastructure demands fiber-optic cabling — engineered for 145 Gbps performance across media production studios, data centers, financial firms, and smart office environments that rely on real-time collaboration and low latency.

CALLIT IT INFRASTRUCTURE helps UAE companies transition to 6G-ready fiber networks, upgrading cabling, switches, and server connections to deliver uninterrupted high-speed connectivity, enterprise-grade reliability, and future-proof scalability.

Why Cat 5/6/7/8 Cables Fail Under 6G Load

⚙️ Bandwidth Limitations

Cat 5 and Cat 6 are limited to 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps respectively.
Cat 7 and Cat 8 can theoretically reach 25–40 Gbps, but only over short distances (< 20 m) under ideal lab conditions.
At 145 Gbps, the signal’s rise time exceeds the cable’s ability to preserve waveform integrity, leading to distortion and CRC errors that corrupt data at high throughput levels.

🔥 Thermal Stress and Adapter Limitations

When companies attempt to bridge fiber backbones into copper networks using SFP-to-RJ45 transceivers, severe heating occurs.
Each module draws > 2.5 W per port at 25 Gbps+, and over cable runs beyond 20 m, attenuation and EMI force the PHY to amplify output, pushing internal temperatures above 70 °C.
During continuous file transfers (such as multi-terabyte uploads in media studios), thermal protection triggers, causing port shutdowns or disconnections.

CALLIT IT INFRASTRUCTURE engineers have seen this repeatedly during 25 GbE and 40 GbE deployments — short copper links that seem stable at 10 Gbps begin failing immediately under sustained high-transfer workloads.

⚡ Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)

Copper behaves like an antenna at multi-gigahertz frequencies.
Even Cat 8 S/FTP shielding cannot fully eliminate signal coupling between adjacent lines, resulting in packet retransmissions, noise, and latency spikes that make copper unusable for 6G-class reliability.