UAE telecommunications sector booms

The UAE had over 1.8 million fixed line subscriptions and the fixed line penetration rate reached 31%; a report has shown. TRA Annual Sector Review, published by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority also showed that the number of active mobile subscriptions continued to grow, reaching over 11.7 million by the end of the year. This represents one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world. The TRA has prepared the third Annual Sector Review as part of its ongoing work to better understand the trends and developments occurring within the UAE telecommunications sector, and in order to promote and enhance transparency. This report summarises the state of the fixed, mobile, and data telecommunications services in the UAE in terms of: subscriber numbers, revenues, usage, and Quality of Service for the years 2008 to 2011. The report also outlines the contribution of the telecommunications sector to the UAE economy and some of the TRA's key achievements over the past two years. The results set out in the report clearly illustrate that the sector is continuing to thrive. In particular, during 2011. The number of Internet service subscriptions increased 10.5% to over 1.3 million, showed the figures. The percentage of Internet subscriptions connected by fibre technology increased by 70.8% as customers were migrated from copper networks to new advanced networks. The outbound roaming minutes increased by 367% as a result of reduced roaming charges for calls within GCC countries. Call prices were cut following a decision by the GCC Ministerial Committee of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Post in 2010. There has also a marked trend of customers subscribing to higher speed Internet services over time. For example, in 2008 no residential customers had Internet speeds of more than 4 Mbps but by the end of 2011, 47% of subscriptions were at these higher speeds. The report also highlights the important contribution the telecommunications sector makes to the UAE's economy. In 2011, it contributed nearly 4.9% to UAE Gross Domestic Product and provided employment to 10,798 people. Commenting on the report, Mohammed Al Ghanim, Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said: "This report highlights the continued development of the telecommunications sector of UAE. The many positive trends illustrated within the review is testament to the strategic vision and operational expertise of Etisalat and du, and also to the continued oversight of the sector by the TRA. I was particularly encouraged by the performance of the Internet services segment and the fact that subscribers are taking advantage of the high speed, advanced networks that the operators have invested heavily in over the past years", he added.