Fixed line infrastructure sharing by year-end: du

Telecom provider du says commercial launch of its fixed line infrastructure could become a reality by the end of 2011.

Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer, du, was speaking to 'Emirates24|7'  following the signing of a £2 million deal with Manchester United.

“We have started limited trial of fixed infrastructure sharing services. These trials are going on, and are very crucial and important for the success of the programme. If it goes well we are targeting to launch this by the end of this year,” said Faraidooni.

The launch of the service will enable customers from across the UAE, irrespective of the area they live in to subscribe to fixed line and/or date and television services provided by either of the service providers.

According to him, du has launched several programmes aimed at increasing its revenue share from providing data usage.

“Today 10 per cent of our revenue comes from data usage and we plan to increase this substantially.,” said Faraidooni.

The company has so far invested about Dh7billion on infrastructure development alone. “A big chunk of that has gone into rolling out our mobile network, enhancing coverage and capacity and today it is paying off.

The deep investment and expansion in extending coverage and the latest technology is paying off. We are continuing to grow and have reached 5million active mobile subscribers and about 44 per cent of the market,” he added.

The company plans to invest further during the coming years towards enhancing tis indoor coverage.

“It is very important for us in the UAE to boost the indoor coverage network, as almost six to seven months in an year is spent inside apartments or shopping malls,” he said.

Du recently announced that it expects a 25 per cent growth in revenue during 2011 from Dh7.07 billion in 2010 to Dh8.83bn.