May 26 2006 |
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UAE telecoms sector hits 99% penetration level
Dubai: The UAE's telecom industry, which until recently was a monopoly, ranks second in mobile teledensity at 99 per cent, just behind Bahrain, which has 105.8 per cent penetration.The UAE and Bahrain also had the highest fixed line penetration rates in 2005, which stood at 27 per cent and 26.6 per cent respectively, according to the latest report by Arab Advisors Group.
The UAE's Etisalat has a subscriber base of 4.7 million in the country, while its Saudi subsidiary has recorded 3 million subscribers in just a year a total of 7.7 million to date.
"However, the average growth in the Middle East is 8 per cent for fixed, 40 per cent for mobile, 33 per cent for the Internet and 21 per cent for PCs."
"The Arab cellular markets are growing at a high pace, while the fixed line markets are stagnating. In 2005, cellular operators added around 34 million subscribers while all the fixed line operators added a mere 2.4 million mainlines," according to Serene Zawaydeh, a consultant at Arab Advisors Group.
"Cellular operators in Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia recorded the highest subscriber additions in 2005. Algérie Telecom Mobile topped the ranks with 3.73 million added subscribers in 2005. As for Telecom Egypt, it added the highest number of mainlines in 2005 which stood at 900,000."
The report comes at a time when the Arab world's telecom markets are undergoing deregulation and entering a phase of competition.
With a second telecom operator entering the market, the UAE has managed to embrace a more liberalised telecom regime, leaving Qatar as the only country in the region to have monopoly in the sector.
Factfile: Top ranking firms of 2005
About 39 Arab telecom operators served 84.84 million cellular subscribers and 30 million mainlines in 2005. Among these, Al Jawal and Maroc Telecom sustained top rankings by end 2005, with 11.845 million and 8.237 million subscribers respectively. Orascom Telecom Algérie ended last year with 7.1 million subscribers, becoming the third largest mobile operator in the region.
By Saifur Rahman
© Gulf News 2006
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