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29 March 2024

No plan to license third UAE telecoms company

Published
By Mohammad El Sadafy

The idea of launching a third company to provide telecommunications services in the UAE is not on the table, said Majid Sultan Al Mesmar, Deputy Director-General of the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA).

Al Mesmar added that TRA does not have any intention to licence a third operator besides the existing service providers Etisalat and du.

Al Mesmar said this during an exclusive interview with Emirates 24/7 on the sidelines Gitex Dubai 2012.

He said setting up a new telecommunications company requires a comprehensive market study for at least one year.

He said: "The UAE recently launched the fourth generation of mobile communication network (L-T-E), making it one of the first operators of that network in the world.”

He said the UAE leads the Gulf states in ‘Networked Readiness Index’.

He said the Global Conference Communications was recently held in UAE for the first time outside its headquarters in Geneva since its inception in 2006.

On international phone call charges, Al Mesmar said both Etisalat and du are charging very reasonable tariffs compared to the quality of their services.

He said it is not reasonable to compare phone tariffs in UAE with those in India or Egypt because these countries have large populations whereas in UAE, two companies provide their services to a small population.

Al Mesmar also said interruption in telecom services is very low in UAE compared to other countries.

He cited the incident of the interruption of BlackBerry services when users are asked for free services for one a month as compensation for just one hour’s service interruption.