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28 March 2024

Per second billing for etisalat subscribers

Etisalat will now levy per second charge for all mobile users (File)

Published
By Staff

Etisalat will start charging mobile phone subscribers per second for calls, reported Arabic newspapers. 

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director-General, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), said etisalat has been given the approval to charge subscribers per second for the calls they make. This is to ensure healthy competition in UAE telecommunications market. 

The TRA's role ends with giving approval for services, the price packages. The time of implementaion is up to the operator to decide, he added. Franchise rights are imposed by the Ministry of Finance and TRA does not have a say in that, Ghanim said. 

According to latest estimates, etisalat has about 47,000 'distinguished subscriber's whom it charges per second for mobile phone calls.

Meanwhile, TRA will meet with representatives of etisalat and du separately to discuss strategic plans for the next three years, Ghanim said and added that both the telecom operators are curently working on offering common landline telephone and internet services. They are working towards opening terrestrial networks by the year-end and ending geographic monopoly, he said.

“The two companies recently have begun testing systems, communications networks before starting to extend the area of operation to include all areas of the UAE,” said Ghanim.

"The TRA oversees direct negotiations between the two companies," he added.