No new phone co, says TRA

No new phone co, says TRA

No room for a new phone provider in the UAE as Du and Etisalat already serve everyone, says presumably confused TRA.

October 21, 2010 5:07 by kippreport

The UAE has no plans to allow a third mobile phone service provider into the market, reports Emirates 24-7. According to the TRA, the market is saturated.

“We now have a mobile phone penetration rate or nearly 208 per cent, which is one of the highest in the world,” says TRA Director-General Mohammed Al-Ghanem, speaking to daily paper Al Ittihad. “We realise very well the requirements of the local market, which does not need a new telecom company given the sufficient services provided by Etisalat and Du.”

So the reasoning is that because Etisalat and Du so effectively dominate the market, there is clearly no need for another company? Kipp can only hope similar reasoning is not applied to all telecoms issues, or we might well hear the TRA arguing that Etisalat and Du provide 100 percent of the country’s broadband, so there is not room for another provider.

Feel free to bang your head on the desk repeatedly now; if you’re one of the newer arrivals to the UAE, you can go ahead and shake your head with a bemused smile. Justifications like this are all too common in the country – trust us, they’ll soon lose their amusing charm.

Kipp doesn’t know what the TRA is worried about anyway. Presumably, the government will also own a large chunk of the new provider if it were ever to arrive, so they won’t really lose any cash…