As part of the ongoing strategy of the U.A.E. Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, TRA, to monitor and report on the trends and developments within the U.A.E. telecommunications sector, the TRA has published its fifth Annual Sector Review.
The report summaries the state of the fixed, mobile, and data telecommunications markets in the U.A.E. in terms of subscribers, penetration rates, revenues, and usage during 2010 – 2013. The report also provides details on the rankings of the U.A.E. in a range of international information and communication technology studies.
“This report highlights the continued development of the telecommunications sector of the U.A.E.. From the statistics provided, the sector continued to experience significant growth in the period from 2010 to 2013 building on the positive sector development seen from 2008 to 2011,” said Mohammed Al Ghanim, Director-General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
“The many positive trends illustrated within the review are 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 in which the operators have invested heavily over the past years,” he added.
According to the report, the U.A.E. had over 2.08 million fixed line subscriptions. The number of active mobile subscriptions continued to grow, reaching over 16 million by the end of the year with a penetration rate of 192.9%, representing one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world. Revenues generated from mobile services have been progressively increasing, going up by 6.3% in 2013.
International outgoing minutes from mobile phones increased by 37%, while international minutes from fixed line phones fell by 12%. The top destination for outgoing international calls was Pakistan, with over 2.1 billion minutes.
The total number of SMS and MMS messages sent during 2013 decreased by 13% and 23% respectively when compared to 2012, while the total number of Internet service subscriptions increased 10.5% to reach over 1.043 million.
The percentage of internet subscriptions using fibre technology increased by 24% and the percentage of Internet subscriptions connected by fibre technology increased to 81% as customers were migrated from copper cable networks to new advanced networks.
There has also a marked trend of customers subscribing to higher speed Internet services over time. For example, in 2010, less than one third of residential customers had Internet speeds of more than 4 Mbps but by the end of 2013, more than two thirds of subscriptions were at higher speeds.
Source : WAM News Agency for United Arab Emirates
