New telecom firm 'will go head to head with Etisalat'

12 February 2006

Dubai: The UAE's new telecom operator will go head to head with Etisalat in all fields including price says the company's chief executive.

However Osman Sultan, CEO of Ecit (Emirates Company for Integrated Telecommunications), which is due to launch this summer, did rule out an all out price war.

In an interview with the Middle East Economic Digest, Sultan was realistic about the task of breaking Etisalat's stranglehold on the UAE market.

"It will not be a cut-throat price war because we will not strongly attack one of the strongest financial operators in this part of the world," he said.

"This doesn't mean we won't compete on having better prices or better value for money we will compete on all aspects of the value chain.

As former head of Egypt's first mobile operator MobiNil, Sultan took the company through market capitalisation into its current position as one of the country's largest corporations.

"We have to be creative in our pricing, which means things like offering different packages (but) we are dealing with a company with very deep pockets," he added.

Ecit is 50 per cent owned by the UAE government. Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Company and the Emirates Company for Telecommunications and Technology, which is a new subsidiary of the Dubai Technology, e-Commerce and Free Zone Authority (Tecom) each have a 25 per cent stake.

Last month Etisalat announced a 25 per cent rise in net profits to $1.17 billion (Dh4 billion).

Total revenues climbed 23 per cent to $3.51 billion (Dh12.8 billion). The UAE government holds a 60 per cent stake in Etisalat.