1. Telecommunication In The
United Arab Emirates

2. Definition
• Telecommunication is the exchange of
information over significant distances by
electronic means.
• It includes: Voice, video, and Internet
communications services.

3. Introduction
• Fostering telecommunications is a major part of
UAE Government strategy, main component of
public infrastructure.
• Today, telecommunications across all platforms
in the UAE are fast and effective with fixed-
line, internet and mobile connectivity among the
best in the world.
• The UAE’ telecommunications sector is regulated
by the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority (TRA) and is presently serviced by two
telecommunications operators, Etisalat and du.

4. Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority
• The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
(TRA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has
been established according to the UAE
Federal Law.
• It was established in 2003

5. • It was established to ensure sustainability,
competitiveness and transparency among the
service providers, customers and shareholders.
• TRA is responsible for the management of
every aspect of the telecommunications and
information technology industries in the UAE.
• Organizational objectives of TRA are derived
from the UAE Telecommunications Law.

6. Board of directors at the
TRA
Chairman, TRA
Board of Directors
H.E. Mohamad Bin
Ahmad Al-Qamzi

7. Objectives of TRA
Ensuring adequacy of telecommunications services throughout the
UAE.
 Ensuring quality of service and adherence to terms of licenses by
licensees.
encouraging telecommunications and IT services within the UAE.
 resolving disputes between the licensed operators
establishing and implementing a regulatory and policy framework;
promoting new technologies.
developing the country’s human capital; and encouraging research
and development.

8. Powers of TRA
• Overseeing the telecommunications sector and
licensees to provide telecommunications services.
• Monitoring competition in the telecom sector
• Approving telecom equipment.
• Managing radio frequency.
• Issuing regulations and policies governing the
importation, use and dealing of telecommunications
equipment.

9. • Developing the telecom and IT sector
through launching initiatives aiming at serving
the society at large and the sector in specific.
• Issuing the required authorizations to use
spectrum frequency and wireless
equipments.

10. Changes in UAE telecommunication
• Since the inception of the TRA, the United Arab
Emirates telecommunications infrastructure has
become more sophisticated.
• It enabled competition in the market by
licensing the second telecom operator “Du”,
resulted to enhance communications services
and offer users with more options and choices.

11. • In January 2010, the Telecommunications
Regulatory Authority, in keeping with one of its
core missions announced telecommunications'
"Competition Framework“.
• The "Framework", is the first to be developed by
TRA.
• Provides a detailed outline benefiting
telecommunications consumers by promoting
and protecting competition through preventing
Licensees from engaging in activities that may
hinder competition in the UAE
telecommunications sector.

12. • Why competition?
• Competition is the drive for development,
where it leads to higher quality of services,
lower prices and the adoption of latest
technologies. It pumps innovation and
progress into the veins of the sector.
• In may,2010 The TRA officially launched one of
the first non-English top-level domain names in
the Arab world.
• That is .emarat (dot emarat)

13. • UAE is one of the first four countries in the
history of the internet to secure an
internationalized top level domain name.
• The name will allow people to access websites
entirely with Arabic characters.
• It helps to foster innovation and creativity, and
provide better branding opportunities for local
companies.
• It will open up access to the internet to more
Arabic speakers.

14. Emirates Telecommunications
Corporation(Etisalat)
• UAE based telecommunications services provider;
currently operating in 18 countries across Asia, the
Middle East and Africa.
• As of February 2011, Etisalat is the 16th largest Mobile
network operator in the world, with total customer
base of more than 135 million.
• On 10 February 2011, Etisalat reported net revenue of
USD $8.4 billion (AED 31.9 billion) & net profits of USD
US$2.078bn (AED 7.631 billion).
• Etisalat has 510 roaming agreements covering 186
countries & enabling BlackBerry, 3G, GPRS and voice
roaming.

15. HISTORY
• 1991 - UAE central government issued Federal Law No. 1,
giving the corporation the right to provide
telecommunications wired and wireless services in the
country, & between UAE and other countries.
• It also gave the firm the right to issue licenses for owning,
importing, manufacturing, using or operating
telecommunication equipment. This practically gave
Etisalat both regulatory and control powers, which
completed the monopoly of the telecom giant in the
UAE.

16. BUSINESS UNITS
Etisalat incorporates additional non-telecom business units under
the umbrella of “Etisalat Services Holding LLC”. These units support
the company's operations & provide services to other operators
and organizations, namely:
Ω training and consultancy services (Etisalat Academy),
Ω SIM/smart card manufacturing and payment solutions
(Ebtikar),
Ω data clearing house services (EDCH),
Ω peering/voice and data transit (Emirates Internet
Exchange – EMI X ),
Ω call center (The Contact Centre),
Ω cable TV (eVision),
Ω facilities management (EFM),
Ω submarine cable laying services (eMarine).

17. ETISALAT INTERNATIONAL
INVESTMENTS
It is the business unit of Etisalat; operates
outside the UAE & manages the
corporation's stakes in telecommunications
carriers in Afghanistan, the Central African
Republic, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Ivory
Coast, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, etc.

18. ETISALAT UAE
Etisalat UAE is headquartered in Abu Dhabi
and includes three regional offices – Abu
Dhabi, Dubai, and Northern Emirates.

19. ABU DHABI REGION
• Etisalat Chairman : Mohamed Hassan Omran.
• Etisalat A/CEO: Nasser Bin Abood.
• Senior Vice President Marketing : Khalifa Al Forah Al Shamsi.
• Group Senior Vice President – Corporate Communications : Ahmed
Bin Ali.
• The advanced infrastructure allows utilization of the most advanced
technology applications to the UAE market. Its high-speed
broadband internet enables users to enjoy multiple high bandwidth
applications such as IPTV and online gaming in an integrated single
interface for landline, internet and television-based services,
providing a truly converged digital home experience to its customers.

20. INTERNET SERVICES
The number of Etisalat's Internet subscribers
reportedly stands at 1.02 million
Some Internet services that Etisalat offers
home users include:
∂ 3G Mobile Internet access,
∂ Broadband Internet services (Al Shamil and
eLife),
∂ Prepaid and post-paid dialup Internet
access.

21. iZone - a system of Wi-Fi hotspots in central
locations, like shopping malls, restaurants, &
sheesha cafes.
iZone can be accessed by either:
∆ purchasing prepaid cards (AED 15/hour), or,
∆ if using an existing account with the operator
(AED 3/hour for dial-up account holders, or
AED 10/hour for broadband users).
Dial-up and ISDN Internet access services are
billed by the hour, whereas domestic and
residential cable & DSL connections have a
fixed monthly rate depending on speed.

22. INTERNET CENSORSHIP
• Etisalat operates an Internet content filtering
system that blocks access to web resources.
• These resources are claimed to be controversial
or offensive (i.e. sexually explicit content,
certain political and religious websites, proxies)
or harmful (i.e. numeric IP addresses, known
phishing or malicious websites, botnet
command servers).
• The use of content filtering is mandated by the
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)
of UAE.

23. The type of content restricted by Etisalat
includes:
¤ Pornography, nudity and sexually explicit content.
¤ The entire Israel country code top-level domain.
¤ Certain media-sharing websites.
¤ Anti-Islamic websites.
¤ Sites criticizing the UAE (like UAEprison, Arab Times).
¤ Anonymous proxy sites (like vtunnel, pzeg etc).
¤ Gay and Lesbian Rights websites (such as Gaydar,
Mogenic, etc.)
¤ Numerical IP address links (for e.g., http://10.11.1.1/).
¤ Voice over IP services providers' websites (like Skype,
Vonage).

24. Revenue
(AED millions)

25. Net Profit
(AED millions)

26. Fig shows breakdown of revenue
(as on Dec, 2010) (Source: Etisalat
annual report 2010)

27. About du
• Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company
- legal name; commercially rebranded as du
(February 2006).
• Competition in the UAE telecom sector started de
facto in early 2007 when du launched its mobile
network services ending nearly 30 years of
telecommunications monopoly by Etisalat.
• The company invested AED 1.7 billion in 2011 and
has a total of 4,993,600 active mobile subscribers,
623,7000 fixed-line telephony subscribers & 127,000
broadband internet subscribers.
• The company has no plans to expand beyond its
home market in the U.A.E.

28. Executive Team At du

29. Ownership
EITC is owned by :
UAE federal government (40%),
Mubadala Development Company (20%),
TECOM Investments (20%), and
public shareholders (20%).
It is listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM)
and trades under the name du.

30. Services
>du offers: fixed and mobile telephony,
broadband connectivity and IPTV services
to individuals, homes and businesses, and
carrier services for businesses.
>February 11, 2007 - du launched its own
mobile service with call tariffs almost
identical to those of Etisalat, thus eliminating
any possibility of price competition between
the two providers.
>Subscribers to du mobile services can be
identified by the dialing prefix “055”.

31. Survey results by TRA
SERVICE COVERAGE : This parameter measures the availability of service coverage
in the regions. Therefore it measures the network's ability to achieve the
minimum signal strength of - 100dBm.
Figure : Coverage Level in *Single Mode (2G) and **Dual Mode (2G/3G)
– Year 2010.
*Single Mode: Here the mobile device is locked to the 2G Network
(GSM) and not allowed to handover to the 3G Network (UMTS).
** Dual Mode: Here the mobile device is allowed to handover between

32. Criticism
‡ Little real competition; with choice of
provider generally determined by
geographic location.
‡ du typically has a monopoly on freezones,
while Etisalat has a monopoly elsewhere;
thus broadband internet provision in the UAE
is among the slowest and most expensive in
the world, with a current maximum
available speed of 24 Mbit/s.

33. Censorship
ØMarch 2008 - du began selectively blocking
VOIP traffic, preventing customers from using
the computer-to-phone functionality of VOIP
systems.
ØHowever, a specific exemption in the
telecom law permits the use of VOIP for
computer-to-computer calls, and so it is still
possible to access VOIP websites, download
VOIP software, set up accounts and use the
software to make computer-to-computer
calls, both audio and video.

34. Censorship
ØApril 14, 2008 - du started instituting the same
widespread censorship of the web practised by
Etisalat. Attempts to access content deemed
'inappropriate' by the UAE censor result in a
'blocked' page.
ØAs well as pornography, blocking includes
blogs, forums and news articles that are critical
of the UAE, as well as a proportion of sites that
seem to be accidentally blocked as they have
no obviously controversial content.

35. TRA annual sector report
UAE Telecommunications Sector
Developments & Indicators, 2007 –
2010

36. STATISTICS
Contribution of telecommunication
sector to UAE’s GDP
2007 4.1%
2008 4.4%
2009 4.9%
2010 5.3%

37. Fixed Telephony –Number of Fixed
Lines
• At the end of 2010,there were
approximately 1.5million fixed telephony
lines in the UAE. This represents 6% decrease
from 2009.
• The number of residential lines between
2009–2010 fell by 20% while number of
business lines increased by 7%.

38. Mobile Service
• The number of active mobile subscriptions increased
by2.4% between December 2009 and December
2010.
• Revenues generated from mobile services increased
by 3.4% in 2010,from AED17,787 million to AED18,400
million.
• Total SMS messages sent decreased by 9% between
2009 and 2010.
• Total MMS messages sent decreased by 25%
between 2009 and 2010

39. Internet Services –Revenue
• Internet revenues increased by 8% between
2009 and 2010 from AED2,532 million to
AED2,733million.
• This revenue growth can be attributed in part
to the increasing proportion of subscribers on
broadband rather than dial-up packages.

40. Sources
• http://www.tra.gov.ae/index.php
• http://www.wikipedia.org
• http://www.zawya.com/middle-
east/countries/uae/
• UAE Telecommunications Sector
Developments & Indicators, 2007 –2010