Research and Markets announced the addition of the "United ArabEmirates Telecommunications Report Q3 2010" report to its offerings.
In a release, Research and Markets said this United Arab EmiratesTelecommunications Report provides industry professionals andstrategists, corporate analysts, telecommunication associations,government departments and regulatory bodies with independentforecasts and intelligence on the United Arab Emirates'telecommunications industry.
In this quarters UAE Telecommunications Report, we have providedYE09 figures for all sectors: fixedline, internet, broadband andmobile, following the publication of data by the TelecommunicationsRegulatory Authority (TRA). In addition, a number of regulatorychanges have occurred: not least of all the announcement that athird operator will not be licensed for at least a further threeyears. The publication of mobile subscriber data by Etisalat saw thetotal number for the end of 2009 reach 11.218mn, rather than the10.672mn as published by the TRA. This relates to Etisalat notdiscrediting its inactive subscriber base, while both the regulatorand Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (du) only countactive subscribers; the cut off point being 90 days. This revealsthat market growth slowed significantly in 2009, rising just 14.5percent compared with 34.5 percent in the previous year. Much ofthis relates to the vast majority of the country's population beingexpatriates on fixed-term working visas. The global economicdownturn, along with Dubai's financial crisis, led to a mass exodusof expatriate workers. However, with penetration rates also at wellover 200 percent, we would expect the market to show signs of aslowdown as well.
3G is receiving a boost, however. In April 2010, du announced itwas planning to raise AED1bn (US$272mn) to finance the expansion ofits 3G mobile broadband network. The operators plan to raise fundsfrom shareholders has received support from its government backedshareholders. Mobile broadband access is increasingly appearing as amain focus in both du and Etisalats strategies going forward, and weare already seeing the introduction of compatible services to gowith it such as Facebook and such similar services.
While we are encouraged by the revision to the country's VoIPregulations, which will allow alternative service providers likeSkype to offer their services in partnership with a licensed VoIPoperator, we do not foresee any significant changes occurring to thebroadband market in the immediate term. The number of internetsubscribers continues to grow at a steady pace. During 2009, thenumber of users rose by 17 percent y-o-y to reach 3.3mn.
Furthermore, competition in the sector has seen broadband chargesdrop 31 percent, while infrastructure sharing agreements betweenEtisalat and du, the investment into network expansion such as FTTHas well as mobile broadband, will also encourage future growth. Bythe end of 2009, there were a total of 690,000 broadbandsubscribers, equivalent to a penetration rate of 15 percent. Theauthors forecast that as of 2014, penetration rates will have risento 24 percent.
This growing maturity of the UAEs telecoms industry also led to arevision in its Telecoms Market score, and which saw its positionfall to eighth place from seventh in the quarter. With the exceptionof this change in score, all other indicator scores remainedunchanged.
Report information:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4809ae/united_arab_emirat
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