Middle East & North Africa Telecommunications

Dubai: More than 12,000 people have signed up for the Al Shamil broadband internet service in less than three weeks etisalat said yesterday said.
“The one year contract option gives customers a broadband experience in a secure environment with savings of up to Dh549 with free installation and waiver of the first month’s fee.”
The offer […]

Cairo: The Egyptian mobile phone market should grow to 40 million subscribers in three years and etisalat wants to take 10 million, chief executive Mohammad Hassan Omran said yesterday. etisalat bought Egypt’s third mobile licence for $2.9 billion in July and plans to start operations in February, competing with Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt, which […]

Abu Dhabi: etisalat will start charging its customers by the second as soon as the new system is introduced, the company announced on Thursday.
“The cost of mobile phone calls will be charged by seconds once the new system is implemented in the country,” said Mohammad Khalfan Al Qemzi, etisalat’s chief executive officer.
Under etisalat’s current billing […]

ABU DHABI — Mobile phone subscribers in the UAE would be able to watch television on their hand sets from next year, as the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) is creating necessary legal and technical frameworks to launch the new service.

“The mobile TV service will be provided by the two telecom operators, Etisalat and du, who […]

Etisalat today announced a strategic partnership with Omania E-Commerce LLC (OEC), a leading ICT solution provider, in an initiative aimed at rolling out integrated market specific ICT solutions to customers in Oman. The agreement was signed in Dubai today by Mr. Abdulla Hashim, VP Marketing, Enterprise Solutions, Etisalat and Sheikh Mohammed Al Harthy, Managing Director […]

Dubai: Emirates Telecommunications Corp (etisalat) will decide this week on a bid for Greek mobile telephone operator TIM Hellas but denied yesterday a report that it had offered to pay as much as 3.8 billion euros.
A Dow Jones report, citing people familiar with the matter, said on Friday that etisalat had offered about 3.8 […]

Dubai, UAE - November 23, 2006: Salem Al Shair, eServices Director, Dubai eGovernment received a Malaysian delegation comprising representatives from the government and IT industry at the Dubai eGovernment stand at GITEX 2006.
The delegation included Sharifa Hind Hussain, Supervisor of MATRADE Dubai Office, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, Consulate General of Malaysia, Badlisham Ghazali, […]

Weyak, etisalat’s latest mobile and web portal, has signed a content agreement with the UK based mobile technology provider Filmnight.
The company will offer accessibility to rich content including movies, music and games on Mobile and Web. The agreement will enable Weyak customers to stream and download high quality movie clips, music videos, audio downloads, […]

Etisalat yesterday unveiled its mobile TV service, targeted to be available to the UAE consumer in mid- 2007, “subject to a clear resolution of issues,” commented Etisalats chief marketing officer, Essa Al Haddad.
The date for the launch of the full service will depend on how quickly issues between the various parties — the networks, the […]

Etisalat has announced a new package which is designed to extend the popular and proven benefits of BlackBerry® to new customers. ‘BlackBerry Internet Service’ will enable users to access up to 10 personal and corporate email accounts (including EIM mail, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, Yahoo and others) from a single device.
Etisalat was the first operator in […]

Dubai: International telecom companies this week descended upon the UAE to partner with etisalat and extend their reach of secure networking services for business clients.
The nation’s incumbent telecom signed deals with AT&T and Orange Business Services, a unit of France Telecom, to enhance each company’s IP-based network for Fortune 2000 clients.
Under the connectivity and network […]

Etisalat and Savvis, a provider of IT infrastructure services for business applications, have formalised their collaboration to offer global IP VPN services, an agreement reached earlier in the year.
Savvis sees the collaboration with Etisalat as an opportunity to further expand its global service offering in the region. Meanwhile, Etisalat hopes to take advantage of […]

Dubai: A new technology promising long-distance wireless broadband access could be unveiled to UAE customers early next year.
Mohammad Al Ganem, director-general of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, acknowledged on Wednesday that both UAE telecom operators are undergoing trials for a technology called WiMAX, or worldwide interoperability for micro-wave access.
“etisalat has been doing some testing, and du […]

Etisalat has agreed to construct and operate a high capacity fibre optic submarine cable with Telkom Kenya. The jointly-owned cable system, to be known as The East African Marine System, will link Mombassa with Fujairah, Etisalat said. A construction and supply contract will be awarded early 2007.

Etisalat, and Bahrain’s Batelco have announced the signing of an agreement during GULFCOMMS 2006 in Dubai.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two Gulf telcos will provide a range of data communication services to their customers and enhance the geographical reach of their operations. This partnership deal covers a range of data services for […]

Emirates Data Clearing House (EDCH), a wholly-owned subsidiary of UAE incumbent Etisalat, has said it will be seeking a contract with new rival operator Du to settle its international roaming accounts. EDCH, one of only five firms of its type in the world and the only one based in the Middle East, settles roaming charges […]

Etisalat has followed Bahrain telco Batelco’s lead by introducing a cut-price, ‘time-limited’ broadband internet package for home users costing just AED99 per month.
Available from November 16, Etisalat is billing this 256Kbits per second connection package as an “affordable alternative for high-speed internet browsing and e-mailing”.
The monthly subscription charge of AED99 (US $27) is based on […]

Etisalat has launched a new version of the Webmail for Etisalat Internet Mail (EIM) service in order to offer customers advanced functionality and new features.
The new version reportedly offers an Arabic and English bilingual interface, importing and exporting of Address Book contacts, enabling users to check Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail accounts, sending SMS messages […]

Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Communications, has said there are no immediate plans to lift the current ban on the provision of third-party voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone calls in the UAE.
The minister stated that any decision to permit VoIP must be in complete cooperation with local telecoms operators Etisalat and du.
“Both du […]

With UAE is in the verge of liberalizing VoIP services in the countries by allowing Du and Etisalat to offer their IP-based services, gulf countries are moving very fast for the spread of VoIP technology in the region. According to this source, the competition from scores of licensed VoIP firms is driving new uses of […]