Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, branded trade nameEtisalat (Arabic: إتصالات Etīsalat, literally Communications) is a UAE-based telecommunications services provider, currently operating in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Emirates Telecommunications Corporation is its legal name. As of November 2009, Etisalat is the 13th largest mobile network operator in the world, with a total customer base of 100 million.[1]
On January 31, 2010, Etisalat reported net revenue of USD $8.4 billion (AED 30.831 billion) and net profits of USD $2.407 billion (AED 8.836 billion).[2]
Etisalat is one of the Internet hubs in the Middle East (AS8966), providing connectivity to other telecommunications operators in the region[3]. It is also the largest carrier of international voice traffic in the Middle East and Africa and the 12th largest voice carrier in the world.[4] As of October 2008, Etisalat has 510 roaming agreements covering 186 countries and enabling BlackBerry, 3G, GPRS and voice roaming.[5] Etisalat operates Points of Presence (PoP) in New York, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Singapore.
History
Emirates Telecommunication Corporation - Etisalat was founded in 1976 as a joint-stock company between International Aeradio Limited, a British Company, and local partners. In 1983 the ownership structure changed - United Arab Emirates government held a 60% share in the company and the remaining 40% were publicly traded.
In 1991 the UAE central government issued Federal Law No. 1, which gave the corporation the right to provide the telecommunications wired and wireless services in the country and between UAE and other countries. It also gave the firm the right to issue licenses for owning, importing, manufacturing, using or operating telecommunication equipment. This practically gave Etisalat both regulatory and control powers, which completed the monopoly of the telecom giant in the UAE. In order to safeguard the country's economic development, the law made provisions for the development of the telecommunication sector in the country.
The increase of exchange lines from 36,000 in 1976 to more than 737,000 in 1998 was one of the important indicators of Etisalat network's growth and development. The company witnessed profit growth rates of 80%[6].
An important milestone was Etisalat's commencement of international operations in January 2001, when under the brand name of Ufone it started operating out of Islamabad.[7].
Today Etisalat stands 140th among the Financial Times Top 500 Corporations in the world in terms of market capitalization, and is ranked by The Middle East magazine as the 6th largest company in the Middle East in terms of capitalization and revenues. The Corporation is the largest contributor outside the oil sector to development programmes of the UAE Federal Government.
Etisalat has also won accolades from across the region for its nationalization programme
Dubai Region
Key positions:
General Manager: Abdulla Al Mana
Deputy General Manager: Ghanim Al Marri
Senior Vice President - Engineering: Omar Al Hashemi
Vice President - HR & Administration: Ahmad Al-Doobi
Vice President - Consumer Sales & SMB: Mustafa Al Sharif
The number of Etisalat's Internet subscribers reportedly stands at 1.02 million.
Some of the Internet services for home users that Etisalat offers include:
Etisalat also operates iZone, a system of Wi-FI hotspots in central locations, such as shopping malls, restaurants, and sheesha cafes. iZone can be accessed by either purchasing prepaid cards (AED 15/hour, USD $4.5/hour), or if using an existing account with the operator (AED 3/hour for dial-up account holders, or AED 10/hour for broadband users).
Dial-up and ISDN Internet access services are billed by the hour, whereas the domestic and residential cable and DSL connections have a fixed monthly rate depending on speed. Other Internet links, aimed at business users, have traffic utilization plans and relatively high rates when exceeding the allocated bandwidth quota. This has caused bad publicity for Etisalat and is a major source of criticism.
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Etisalat Building Photo in seven Emirates of UAE (United Ara Emirates).
Why EtisalatTower has “Golf Ball” ? What means of these “Golf Ball” ?
Answer for this question I get from internet. Internet is one medium from where you can get all type of details. These Golf Ball is known by Radome. Radome means Radar and Dome.Radar used to detect and track space objects in conjunction.Domesdo not have to be perfectly spherical in cross-section.
These Golf Ball of Etisalat building is weatherproof enclosure.
All transmitters and receivers of telecommunications that provide satellite and mobile telephone connection are protected by these Golf Ball.
etisalat cuts off-peak rates for foreign calls 1 Year, 5 Months ago
Dubai: etisalat on Tuesday said that it plans to offer customers a reduction of 50 per cent on off-peak rates for international calls, as competition between the country's two telecom operators hots up.
The new International Super Off-Peak plan will provide home fixed line customers with more savings on off-peak calls to international destinations.
The new plan will be an optional one for customers and will provide additional benefits of zero rental and no activation fees, etisalat said.
The Super Off-Peak hours will be from 1am to 7am everyday. To activate the new plan, customers can simply call 125, or visit any of etisalat's business outlets across the country.
In addition to the Super Off-Peak plan, customers will also benefit during the normal off-peak hours - from 2pm to 4pm, 9pm to 1 am on week days, and from 7am on Fridays to 1am on Saturdays. During off-peak hours, home fixed line customers will be saving an additional 35 per cent more than the current off peak rate.
The Super Off-Peak plan will continue to offer competitive fixed SMS rates to international numbers at the existing Dh0.60 per message. The national FSMS will be charged at Dh0.30 per message.
Local calls to mobile phones during peak hours will cost Dh0.36 per minute. For off-peak hours, the current off-peak rate will apply to all national calls for both fixed line and mobiles. Charges for international and national calls to fixed lines during peak time will cost an additional 10 per cent under this new plan.
Etisalat becomes official sponsor for Shaabiyat Al Cartoon
Abu Dhabi, 26 July 2010, Etisalat today announced its official sponsorship of Shaabiyat Al Cartoon, an animated Arabic cartoon series which will premiere its fifth season on Sama Dubai TV in the Holy month of Ramadan. The announcement was made at a signing ceremony between Etisalat and Fanar Production, the company responsible for producing the series. The announcement marks Etisalat’s one-year strategic partnership with Shaabiyat Al Cartoon.
A new season of Shaabiyat Al Cartoon is launched on Sama Dubai TV each Ramadan, with a new 15-minute episode aired every day after iftar. ““Etisalat has always supported initiatives that highlight the best of Emirati culture and continues to encourage such creative platforms reaching out to the youth of this nation. Shaabiyat Al Cartoon is a wonderful showcase of our social lives and cultural values ; and we hope audiences enjoy the opportunity to connect with their favourite characters in a new season once again this year, starting in the Holy month of Ramadan,” said Khalifa Al Shamsi, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Etisalat.
Through this sponsorship, we are also delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the spirit of Ramadan and help spread awareness about Emirati culture, traditions and lifestyle across the multi-cultural population living in the UAE,” he added.
According to Haidar Mohamed, Co-Founder and General Manager, Fanar Production, “We are very happy to announce this partnership with Etisalat. Etisalat has been supporting us over the years and this relationship has now become stronger with the sponsorship of Shaabiyat Al Cartoon for the entire year. We look forward to reaching a bigger audience and satisfying our loyal fans with the active support of Etisalat.”
Etisalat adds to the excitement by giving fans the chance to download Shaabiyat Al Cartoon anytime, now available on Etisalat’s Greetune service atwww.etisalat.ae/portal/Greetune. Customers can subscribe to receive Shaabiyat Al Cartoon videos, ringtones and wallpapers by sending SMS ‘SHA3BIA’ to 1110, subscription charged at AED 5 per week.
In addition, Etisalat will introduce a specially developed micro-site under ‘Etisalat Mobile Portal’ that is dedicated to Shaabiyat Al Cartoon. The portal will allow customers to enjoy various ringtones and wallpapers of the cartoon. Customers can simply visithttp://mobile.weyak.aefrom their mobile devices to download any content.
Shaabiyat Al Cartoon is based on a group of Middle Eastern families and individuals living in Dubai and portrays their lives and traditions in a very humorous and engaging way. Comprising of 24 unique characters from local and Middle Eastern origin, each with their own unique accent and habits, the cartoon has attracted an increasingly loyal fan following across the Middle East.
The most popular characters are Shambee, Afari, Atooga and Bo Mhayeer who can be seen in each episode. Conceived by Haider Mohammed, the series has also gained international recognition and there are plans to put the animation in English subtitles for a global audience to enjoy Middle Eastern and Emirati culture while gaining a better understanding of the same.
Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry, issued the following statement to its customers yesterday in response to the security issues raised by India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Although several news organisations have quoted parts of the statement, in the interest of full transparency as well as to fully inform BlackBerry's customer base in the UAE, we are publishing the entire unedited copy below:
The UAE has a problem with text message spamming - a big problem. Anyone with a mobile knows what we are talking about here - text messages advertising everything from fashion sales to nightclubs and spare car parts, sent at all times of the day and night, often multiple times, often in the wrong language, often sent by your own mobile operator.
Now, it looks like some degree of regulation is going to hit the market. It's about time, in fact it is embarassingly overdue. The telecoms regulator today announced a new anti-spam policy, effective immediately, that prohibits sending SMS spam to people who didn't ask for it.
However, unless VoIP is offered by the country's existing licensees - Etisalat and du as well as Thuraya and Yahsat - that is likely not to happen.
But, access to the Skype app in the iTunes App Store remains unfiltered and based on anecdotal and personal experience, the app works fine.
Of course, it would be interesting to find out how much a call costs to make since Skype's iPhone app works over 3G networks and thus, you'd need to subscribe to a hefty data package to use it. I decided to find out.
- The Financial Times has a good overview of goings on in Egyptian telecoms, where Vodafone is preparing to say farewell to the market that has treated it very well over the years. Vodafone's new CEO, Vittorio Colao, is keen to reign in spending, cash out of certain investments, and generally tighten up the company's balance sheet after more than a decade of flat-out expansion. Telecom Egypt, its joint-venture partner, could offer up to US$4.7 billion for control of the Egypt operation, analysts say. That kind of cash is hard to turn down these days.
- The resolution of a bitter brotherly feud within India's richest family could mean a dramatic change in the lanscape of the African telecom market. The Ambani brothers, whose intense infighting led partially to the demise of a deal to merge South Africa's MTN with India's Reliance Telecommunications, have kissed and made up. MTN stock has risen sharply since the prominent "I love you, bro" moment, with talk that the deal may again be on the cards.
- Etisalat have been talking up their impending entrance into the Iraqi telecom market since 2008, but it could happen in a way few expected. While all talk so far has been of a deal to buy a stake in Korek, the Kurdish operator, the company is now one of many being said to be interested in buying Iraq's fourth mobile license. The license, which was finally approved this week, should make a nice little earner for the Iraqi government, which will own a 35% stake in the fourth operator. The three current licenses went for $1.25 billion each. But before Etisalat can go dropping that kind of money, it will need to deal with the concerns of the UAE State Audit Institution, which is reportedly unhappy with the free-spending culture of the company, according to an Emarat al Youm report summarised here by ITP.
du's brand remains all alone and away from this year's MECOM event - Photo: Jeffrey Biteng / The National
Attending this week's MECOM event was a rather tepid affair. The amount of exhibition halls dropped to two from three the year before and several top-name speakers, such as the chief executives of du, wi-Tribe and the director-general of Lebanon's telecom regulator, failed to make scheduled speeches.
It was also quite notable that du, a major sponsor of this year's MECOM (their logo was plastered everywhere from delegate badges to the event's banners), remained conspicuously absent from the entire exhibition. From the event's first day, rumours swirled among speakers and delegates at the Telecoms CEO Summit why du was not present at MECOM.
Well, I actually received a response from Saugat Chatterjee, a du spokesperson, who gave the lowdown as to why they decided to vacate the MECOM premises - which you can read after the jump.
The Dubai Metro has more than 100,000 people surfing the web each month, creating a growing revenue stream that is at least worth Dh500,000.
Ayman Elnashar, the director for broadband wireless technology at du, said that the numbers have surpassed internal forecasts.
"It's surprising because we there is no marketing for the project," Mr Elnasher said. "Personally, I don't use [the metro] that much so I haven't seen any advertising, but it needs to have more marketing."
The Dubai Metro internet service is run under du's wireless broadband service that has installed access points in several locations in each of the RTA 79 metro cars. According to a source at du who declined to be named, du has spent $7 million (Dh25.7m) to build the metro's internet service.
(A man riding the Dubai Metro at the Al Karama Station is probably checking his e-mails, but I bet he'd rather be surfing the Web on his mobile. Pawan Singh / The National)
When Apple first announced the iPad, it curiously included a new micro-SIM card that would be required for the device to use 3G networks. Prior to Apple's announcement, the only device that used a micro-SIM was a GPS watch available in the US.
The move also left carriers scrambling to make sure they had enough of these new fangled micro-SIM's around before the demand of iPad (and soon, iPhone 4G) users overwhelmed card manufacturers.
One enterprising Dubai resident who just received his iPad 3G carefully cut a duplicate Etisalat SIM card to fit inside his new device. Although Omar Kassim came perilously close to actually cutting the chip itself, he is likely the first (or one of the first) people in the UAE with a functional and fully working iPad 3G
Well, you can put your scissors and knives away because Etisalat's SIM card engineers have fashioned a solution to the micro-SIM problem.
After a couple of delays, it seems that the ships have finally found the cable, dragged it back up to the repair crew, patched it up or whatever cable engineers do to fix cables, and turned the internet back on (at least in the region).
According to The National's Charlie Hamilton, Etisalat insisted that customers had not suffered internet slowdowns because it rerouted traffic to alternate cables.
But apparently that didn't appear to help many Etisalat internet subscribers, who vocally complained about their slow online speeds on social media forums such as Facebook and Twitter.
If you're internet isn't up to snuff yet, let us know in the comments or e-mail me and we'll try to help you out.
Last week we were alerted that Save Egypt Front, an Egyptian opposition website, had been blocked in the UAE by the internet filtering system managed by Etisalat. The site is no longer blocked.
An email from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, which oversees the national internet censorship policy, explained the background to the site's blocking, and unblocking:
- I'm a fan of the people behind Ikbis, the Arab YouTube. Yes, it's a me-too concept, but they are playing a very smart ground game, working locally to create interesting Arab content. On a recent trip to Amman I happened upon a gathering of the city's cool crowd, celebrating Earth Hour at the one and only Wild Jordan. Who did I find downstairs but the Ikbis guys, with a camera setup, getting all the kids in attendance to record their environmental messages for the world. A bit fluffy and cuddly, but hey - its one small example among many of how being on the ground and part of a community can actually matter for a dotcom in this part of the world. Anyhow, Ahmad Humeid, an Ikbis co-founder, has a blog post showing six interesting examples of how Ikbis is being used. Worth a look if you are interested in Arab online content.
- Etisalat has dived into the dangerous but rewarding world of Twitter, with @EtisalatUAE, its first official account on the site. As mentioned over at Mixed Media, du has truly dominated this space and uses Twitter as well as any telco in the world. Can Etisalat, not renowned for its open or savvy approach to customers and the media, step up to the plate?
- In The National: a update on Dubizzle, the Craigslist of the UAE. The site is booming, and doing extra well in Abu Dhabi, which is served by a depressingly low number of targeted, city-specific websites. Attention smart entrepreneurs: start an awesome portal for Abu Dhabi, covering restaurants, gig guides, cost of living, gossip, hyperlocal news, etc. Seriously, you will print money.
- Gulf News has two great stories today, and I mean that with none of the sarcasm that often accompanies mentions of the UAE's biggest newspaper. Etisalat is employing workers for its Ajman call centre that have no contract with the company, a situation an interior ministry official tells the paper is "an illegal practice."
- The Nokia N900 is a monster, but a good monster, says 360 East's Ahmad Humeid. I've yet to play with one - I think I have become persona non grata to Nokia's people here, and haven't yet met someone who owns one. But it certainly seems like an industrial strength piece of hardware.
What this means, in short, is that if you want to connect your iPad to a mobile network for mobile broadband, you'll need to ask your friendly local operator for a new micro-SIM that they have made especially for the iPad. This gives networks huge power over their customers, because they can tie any terms and conditions and contract lengths they want to that micro-SIM.
More importantly though - who will actually have these new kinds of SIM cards available for their customers? It is a big question, so I did a bit of asking around here in the UAE.
Today could be a big day for the TRA, unless it isn't. (Pic by Ryan Carter / The National)
A new competition framework for the telecom market will be launched by the TRA today. Beep Beep's David George-Cosh is there for the release, and you can expect stories later today.
We should all have high hopes for what comes out of todays launch, and there are a couple of interesting things about this whole situation that are worth mentioning.
Is the game almost up for the UAE's money movers? Etisalat wants to jump into the lucrative remittance business (photo by Pawan Singh / The National)
Earlier this month, we published a pretty interesting story about Etisalat introducing a service that would permit Indian expatriates to send money home using their mobile phone.
The service was to be launched sometime this month, according to Essa al Haddad, the group chief marketing officer for Etisalat.
Well, the month is almost over, so I called Etisalat for an update. Tens of thousands of Indian expatriates were likely holding their breath in anticipation for the services launch.
What I found it that the company's mobile remittance service will be delayed for two more weeks as officials tie up loose ends and get everything ready for launch, an Etisalat spokesman told me.
So, currency exchange houses will have a short reprieve on losing in on their lucrative US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) remittance business.
As well they should. It doesn't take a genius to realise that sending money over a mobile device is infinitely more efficient that going personally to UAE Exchange and handing over your cold, hard cash. Wouldn't it be better to just top up your mobile balance, punch in a few numbers and - voila! - instant money transfer?
Indeed, that future will be here in a couple of weeks. Watch this space for more when the mobile remittance service launches.
Are mobile operators getting into the iPhone app game? You can bet there's an app like that.
Yes, it appears that Etisalat is taking the iPhone app world quite seriously with a new free application targeting golf enthusiasts who will be taking in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship next week.
I haven't seen it available on the iTunes App Store yet, but I'm sure that users will be able to get real time data, player profiles and course information, just like the company promises in its press release.
The operator has already got one iPhone app in the can, a Yellow Pages app that aids with finding addresses and phone numbers. Unfortunately, the only reviews for the current version of the app suggest that it crashes quite a bit, so caveat emptor.
The key thing here is that it is quite rare for telecom companies to develop iPhone apps, leaving the bulk of work to the software developers of the world. But operators are increasingly becoming more involved in the content side of the business and this announcement is definitely a sign of things to come.
A quick check on iTunes reveals that Etisalat appears to be the only Middle Eastern operator making iPhone apps, but that could soon change. We'll have more on this story at a later date.
And yes, an apology for the cheesiness of the first line there. I couldn't help myself.
Earlier this week, it appeared that Etisalat was one of the operators in the running to buy a stake in Nigeria's state-owned telecommunications company, Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (Nitel).
But now, according to a report in the Nigerian newspaper BusinessDay, the involvement of the UAE's largest telecommunications company may not be happening after all.
The newspaper is claiming that there is a number of operators involved in the bidding for Nitel that may be opting to leave the sale process since the government has not been as transparent as once hoped.
"How do you describe the entrance of a new bidder to a transaction that has almost drawn to a close...I would not be surprised if this is one of the reasons why Etisalat pulled out because its representatives did not attend the pre-bid conference last week", the newspaper quoted one unnamed source who was close to the bidding companies.
Adding to the bidders' frustration is the claim that Nitel is refusing to led anyone inspect their facilities and that there appears to not be any audited account of the company's financials, the newspaper said.
As the newspaper succinctly puts it: "This, bidders told BusinessDay, will likely affect participation because they have no information about what they are buying."
We've put in a call to Etisalat to get some sort of update in their Nigerian plans and will update this story in the coming days.
Shuaa Capital, the UAE's largest investment bank, released its 2010 vision plan today, chockful of handy financial information in a tidy PDF file.
In the report, the company detailed its outlook for the UAE's telecommunications sector, briefly analysing how Etisalat and du performed in 2009 and offered its estimates for how both companies should fare in the future.
It also notably offered a quick, top 10 list of predictions it expects to happen in the UAE telecom sector. While it may not have the same pizazz as a late night television show, it is still an interesting read.
Check out Shuaa's predictions and some thoughts on them after the jump.
It has been a difficult privatisation process for Nitel, which was sold to private investors back in 2006. That sale was cancelled by the government after it said the buyers didn't do enough to improve the network. In August 2009, the government set itself a 60-day period to finish the privatisation, that one clearly whooshed by like a Douglas Adams deadline.
Nitel is a fairly marginal business in itself, but this story is part of something bigger: Africa has way too many telecom networks, and consolidation is the name of the game going forward. The continent's mobile market has boomed in the last decade, leading to plenty of operators with deep pockets, looking for an acquisition. But few have pockets as deep as Etisalat.
Mobile number portability (MNP) is one of those telecommunications offerings that seem to be available everywhere in the world but the Middle East. Having your phone number tied to you instead of a SIM card is a concept that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has been talking about introducing but not yet delivering to the UAE.
Once the MNP switch is turned on, one would expect both Etisalat and du would see a healthy amount of customers leaving each respective operator for the other. Mobile phone rates would likely decrease while the operator's would introduce promotions at a feverish pace to reduce subscriber churn. Personally, it would also really make my job a lot more fun writing about all of these developments.
The last we've heard about MNP coming to the UAE was this October 2009 article in our sister newspaper, Al Itthad (Gulf News link) where the TRA said it is likely to become operational sometime ... around now (or the early part of 2010).
I recently had a chance to speak to some high-level executives from Etisalat and du to get an update on where launching the MNP service is at, which you can find after the jump.
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