business-data | Edakulathur Michael Johnson

UAE tops region's cellphone market

By Mohammad Ezz Al Deen, Staff Reporter, Published: 07/31/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)

Dubai: Mobile phone's reach in the UAE has crossed 121.81 per cent this year, taking the country to the top of the telecom market in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the latest census.

An Etisalat official told Gulf News yesterday the leading UAE telecom service provider's mobile subscriber base had recently crossed five million, taking the reach 121.81 per cent, much higher than its nearest competitor, Bahrain with 105.8 per cent.

This means, each UAE resident has more than one sim (subscriber identity module) card.

It is, however, not very clear, how many of the five million sim cards are active as visitors usually subscribes to etisalat's pre-paid services for a short term before leaving the country. Some sim cards become inactive due to lack of usage.

Etisalat said in May that the reach of its mobile phone service, with more than 4.7 million subscribers, had touched 100 per cent a projection based on a population of 4.7 million.

This equation changed when findings of the census was announced on Sunday.

According to the latest data, the UAE's population has reached 4.1 million, and that translates into a mobile phone service reach of 121.81 per cent.

Experts predict a higher level in the coming months as the second telecom service provider, du, rolls out services later this year.

A telecom industry expert, told Gulf News he expected these numbers and etisalat's positive results to put pressure on its rival.

"Mobile market has reached a saturation point as every resident has more than one number in the country," he said.

Du had said that it would try to secure 30 per cent of the UAE market between 2007 and 2009.

Osman Sultan, du's chief executive officer, had said that the company would attract 10 per cent of the UAE mobile phone users in the first three years of the company's operations.

"Even with this number of subscribers, we have a lot to introduce in the UAE's telecom market in fixed, mobile phone, data and internet services, besides satellite radio and TV broadcasting," he told Gulf News yesterday.

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My Comments: 1.21 sim per resident is a data which needs further validation in my opinion.