Communication in the Uae free essay sample

Communication in the UAE:At the moment there are two major telecommunication companies operating inside the UAE, Etisalat and DU, With Etisalat holding the majority of the market segment DU is slowly catching up in terms of Technology and service providing, DU managed to do what Etisalat did in 35 years in such a short period it got all its servers running and started providing services to the customers they also managed to provide signal poles in an efficient time period it did take time till the population got used to the idea of a new telecommunication company in the country but eventually they accepted it due to the offers provided by DU not like Etisalat charging per minute Du actually charges per second that is very efficient for short call or conversations. Back in the days when Etisalat was around the telecommunication market was monopoly they used to charge any price and customers had to pay due to the lack of a substitute but this all changed when Du entered the market the market changed from a monopoly to oligopoly but this did not effect the prices of Etisalat for as Du has put its prices at a similar level preventing a price war between the two companies. History of communication in the UAE:Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Etisalat was established in the late 70s and more precise in 1976 as a joint-stock company between International Aeradio Limited, a British based Company, and local partners. In 1983 the ownership structure changed and the majority of the company belonged to the United Arab Emirates government giving them a 60% share in the company and the remaining 40% were publicly traded. In the beginning of the 90s( 1991) the UAE central government issued Federal Law No. 1, which gave the corporation the right to provide the telecommunications wired and wireless services in the country and 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 also made them more independent from other telecommunication companies . This practically gave Etisalat both regulatory and control powers over their products, which completed the monopoly of the telecom giant in the UAE. In order to safeguard the countrys economic development, the law made provisions for the development of the telecommunication sector in the country. The growth of etisalat: The increase of exchange lines(land lines) from 36,000 in 1976 to more than 737,000 in 1998 was one of the important indicators of Etisalat networks growth and development.From national to international operations: An important milestone was Etisalats commencement of international operations in January 2001, when under the brand name of Ufone it started operating out of Islamabad. Etisalats position in the international market: Today Etisalat stands 140th amo ng the Financial Times Top 500 Corporations in the world in terms of market capitalization, and is ranked by The Middle East magazine as the 6th largest company in the Middle East in terms of capitalization and revenues. The Corporation is the largest contributor outside the oil sector to development programmes of the UAE Federal Government. Etisalat International Investments:Etisalat International Investments is the business unit of Etisalat that operates outside the UAE and manages the corporations stakes in telecommunications carriers in Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The International Investments unit also manages Etisalats minor stakes in other telecommunications services providers, such as Sudatel (a mobile, fixed and Internet services provider in Sudan), and Qtel (Qatar-based telecommunications services provider). Mobily Saudi Arabia One of Etisalats first international investments was the bid to become the second mobile services operator in Saudi Arabia. Etihad Etisalat, a consortium led by Etisalat, won the 2G GSM license by offering USD $3. 25 billion. Currently operating under the brand name Mobily, Etihad Etisalat offers Saudi Arabia subscribers conventional and 3. G mobile telephony services, and has floated shares on the Saudi stock market. Etisalat Egypt In July 2006, a consortium led by Etisalat was granted the rights to develop Egypts third mobile network, with a winning bid of 16. 7 billion Egyptian pounds (EUR â‚ ¬2. 29 billion euro). The venture, Etisalat Egypt, competes with existing service providers Vodafone and Mobinil. On September 12, 2006, it was announced that the network would be built by Ericsson of Sweden, and Huawei of China, at a cost of approximately USD $1. 2 billion. In 2007, at the Comms MEA Awards ceremony Etisalat was presented with the ‘Best New Entrant’ award for its Egyptian operations. Award winners were selected by a panel of experts from KPMG, the Arab Advisors Group and Oliver Wyman, Dubai. Canar Sudan Etisalat is one of the founding partner companies of Canar Telecom, a fixed-line telecom services operator. In September 2007 Etisalat has raised its stake in Canar from 37% to 82% at an estimated cost of AED 584. 17 million (USD $159 million). Canar was launched on November 27, 2005. The operator is reported to use NGN and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technologies for its voice, data, internet and multimedia services. Canar is one of the first operators in Africa to use an NGN network core. Internet services The number of Etisalats Internet subscribers reportedly stands at 1. 02 million.Some of the Internet services for home users that Etisalat offers include: * 3G Mobile Internet access * Broadband Internet services (Al Shamil and eLife) * Prepaid and post-paid dialup Internet access Etisalat also operates iZone, a system of Wi-FI hotspots in central locations, such as shopping malls, restaurants, and sheesha cafes. iZone can be accessed by either purchasing prepaid cards (AED 15/hour, USD $4. 5/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 the domestic and residential cable and DSL connections have a fixed monthly rate depending on speed.Other Internet links, aimed at business users, have traffic utilization plans and relatively high rates when exceeding the allocated bandwidth quota. This has caused bad publicity for Etisalat and is a major source of criticism. About DU: In February 2006 The Emirates Integrated Telecommunications company (EITC) was commercially rebranded to the company now know as DU it was invested 2. 4 billion AED in 2009 and added 1 million active mobile subscribers in 2009, bringing its subscriber list to more than 3. 4 million and until now Du has not provided any information on intentions of going internation. Ownership: It is 40% owned by UAEs Federal government , 20% by Mubadala Development Company( Abu Dhabi), 20% by TECOM Investments(Dubai) and 20% by public shareholders. Services:Du offers fixed and mobile telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services to individuals, homes and businesses, and carrier services for businesses. BlackBerry controversy In July 2009, Etisalat pushed an update to BlackBerry devices operating on the telecoms national network, citing performance improvements. However, it was later discovered that the update contained eavesdropping software, developed by the US-based software development company SS8, which specializes in electronic surveillance. It is reported that the software enabled the company to monitor and forward communications on BlackBerry devices to their servers. Research in Motion, BlackBerrys developer, acknowledged that the patch was a form of spyware, and issued a removal patch on July 20.On December 27, 2009, both Etisalat and Du (telco) have been mandated by the UAE telecom regulator to start filtering BlackBerry users web access and block illegal content. Due to concerns with the security and the provisioning of legal interception for Blackberry non-voice services, on 1 Aug 2010, the Telecommunication Regularity Authority of the UAE instructed Etisalat that all Blackberry e-mail, internet and messenger functions must be suspended on 1 Oct 2010. However, an agreement between Blackberrys developer Research In Motion and UA Es telecom regulator has been reached, and the announced BlackBerry services suspension has been canceled.