United Arab Emirates - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts

Publication Overview

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in UAE’s telecommunications market. The report analyses the mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media sectors. Subjects include:

• Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;
• Facts, figures and statistics;
• Industry and regulatory issues;
• Infrastructure;
• Major players, revenues, subscribers, ARPU, MoU;
• Internet, IPTV;
• Mobile voice and data markets;
• Broadband (FttH, DSL, cable TV, wireless);
• Convergence and digital media;
• Broadband subscriber forecasts to 2020.

Companies covered in this report include:

Etisalat, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), Yahsat.

Researcher:- Paul Kwon
Current publication date:- December 2011 (10th Edition)

Executive Summary

Fibre, LTE and competition underpins development

One of the last countries in the Middle East to liberalise, the telecom market of the United Arab Emirates has benefited from competition as evident by falling tariff prices. The recent launch of operations by a third market entrant will only further drive competition and deliver benefits for end user in 2012.

Broadband services are well developed, with high penetration rates for the region. Development of the incumbent’s fixed network is focused on extending fibre into the last mile, as part of plans to extend FttX networks to the entire country. International Internet connectivity is set to improve given the UAE’s involvement in two separate major terrestrial cable networks spanning the Middle East.

Widely accessible Internet access has fostered development of the digital economy, encompassing e-commerce, e-government, e-health and e-learning. The UAE has also taken the initiative in implementing smart cities infrastructure, deploying smart grid technology and launching an ambitious plan to develop Masdar City, a new zero carbon, zero waste city powered entirely by renewable energy sources.

Mobile penetration levels in the UAE are among the world’s highest, largely due to a very large and fluid expatriate population. Competition has led the incumbent to increase its focus on the underdeveloped mobile broadband and applications market. It has already commercially launched LTE services as well as cutting edge mobile applications services such as Near Field Communication (NFC)-based contact payment services.

Table of Contents

• 1. Key Statistics
• 2. Telecommunications Market
  • 2.1 Overview of UAE’s telecom market
• 3. Regulatory Environment
  • 3.1 Background
  • 3.2 Regulatory authority
  • 3.3 Liberalisation
    • 3.3.1 Second operator
    • 3.3.2 Third operator
    • 3.3.3 Satellite licence
    • 3.3.4 Interconnection and access
    • 3.3.5 Number Portability (NP)
  • 3.4 VoIP prohibited
• 4. Fixed Network Operators
  • 4.1 Overview
  • 4.2 Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat)
  • 4.3 Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company/du
  • 4.4 Yahsat
• 5. Telecommunications Infrastructure
  • 5.1 National telecom networks
  • 5.2 International infrastructure
    • 5.2.1 Submarine cable networks
    • 5.2.2 Terrestrial cable networks
    • 5.2.3 Satellite networks
  • 5.3 Telecoms & IT
• 6. Broadband and Internet Market
  • 6.1 Overview
    • 6.1.1 Censorship and site blocking
    • 6.1.2 Dubai Internet City (DIC)
  • 6.2 Broadband statistics
  • 6.3 Internet access locations
  • 6.4 Fibre to the Home (FttH)
  • 6.5 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
  • 6.6 Cable modems
  • 6.7 Wireless broadband
    • 6.7.1 WiFi
    • 6.7.2 WiMAX
    • 6.7.3 Internet via satellite
• 7. Digital Media / Digital Economy
  • 7.1 Overview
  • 7.2 Services
    • 7.2.1 E-Commerce
    • 7.2.2 E-Government
    • 7.2.3 E-health
    • 7.2.4 E-learning
  • 7.3 Smart cities/smart communities
    • 7.3.1 Overview
    • 7.3.2 Masdar City
  • 7.4 Digital media
    • 7.4.1 Tejari
    • 7.4.2 Bayt.com
  • 7.5 Digital broadcasting
    • 7.5.1 Overview of broadcasting market
    • 7.5.2 Digital TV
• 8. Mobile Communications
  • 8.1 Overview of UAE’s mobile market
    • 8.1.1 Mobile statistics
  • 8.2 Regulatory issues
    • 8.2.1 Overview
    • 8.2.2 Mobile number portability
  • 8.3 Mobile technologies
    • 8.3.1 Analogue and digital
    • 8.3.2 Third generation mobile
    • 8.3.3 Fourth generation mobile
  • 8.4 Major mobile operators
    • 8.4.1 Etisalat
    • 8.4.2 Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company/du
  • 8.5 Mobile voice services
    • 8.5.1 Prepaid
    • 8.5.2 Satellite mobile
  • 8.6 Mobile messaging
    • 8.6.1 Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
  • 8.7 Mobile broadband
  • 8.8 Mobile content and applications
    • 8.8.1 Overview
    • 8.8.2 Mobile TV
    • 8.8.3 M-commerce
• 9. Forecasts
  • 9.1 Broadband forecasts
    • 9.1.1 Scenario 1 – higher growth
    • 9.1.2 Scenario 2 – lower growth
  • 9.2 Notes on scenario forecasts
• 10. Glossary of Abbreviations

• Table 1 – Country statistics United Arab Emirates – 2010
• Table 2 – Telephone network statistics – 2010
• Table 3 – Internet user and subscriber statistics – June 2011
• Table 4 – Broadband statistics – June 2011
• Table 5 – Mobile statistics – March 2011
• Table 6 – National telecommunications authority
• Table 7 – Total telecommunications revenue by sector – 2007 - 2010
• Table 8 – Total fixed network revenue and ARPU – 2007 - 2010
• Table 9 – Etisalat group revenues and divisional representation – 2005 - 2011
• Table 10 – du revenue and profit/loss – 2006 - 2011
• Table 11 – du fixed line subscribers – 2010 - 2011
• Table 12 – Fixed lines in service, teledensity and subscribers by operator – 1995 - 2011
• Table 13 – Internet user and penetration estimates – 1995 - 2011
• Table 14 – Internet subscribers and penetration – 2000 - 2011
• Table 15 – Internet and broadband subscribers by access method – 2000 - 2011
• Table 16 – Residential and business Internet and broadband subscribers – 2007 - 2010
• Table 17 – Total Internet revenue and Internet and broadband ARPU – 2007 - 2010
• Table 18 – Facebook data for United Arab Emirates – December 2010
• Table 19 – Online activity by individuals – 2010
• Table 20 – du IPTV subscribers – 2008 - 2011
• Table 21 – Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1995 - 2011
• Table 22 – Mobile operators, subscribers and annual change – March 2011
• Table 23 - Mobile operators’ market share – 2007 - 2011
• Table 24 – Total mobile revenue and ARPU – 2007 - 2010
• Table 25 - du Mobile subscribers and ARPU – 2010 - 2011
• Table 26 – Prepaid subscribers – 2005 - 2011
• Table 27 – du prepaid subscribers – 2008 - 2011
• Table 28 – Numbers of SMS and MMS sent – 2007 - 2010
• Table 29 – Mobile application usage – 2010
• Table 30 – Forecast broadband subscribers – higher growth scenario – 2011, 2015; 2020
• Table 31 – Forecast broadband subscribers – lower growth scenario – 2011, 2015; 2020

• Chart 1 – UAE fixed-line and mobile subscribers – 2000 – 2011