UAE Crosses 1 Million Broadband Subscribers By Providing Affordable Services

World Bank Report reveals UAE being the cheapest broadband service provider in the MENA region.

UAE has crossed 1 million broadband subscribers and seen an increase of 30 percent broadband subscriptions since January 2011 to November 2013 according to the statistics revealed by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

A report published by the World Bank shows UAE as the cheapest service provider in the MENA region. The report highlighted factors such as availability of broadband, speed and revealed the cost being “less than one per cent of the disposable monthly income”, making it the cheapest in the entire MENA region. These factors will result in promotion of customer satisfaction in the UAE region.

The report also highlights a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration which converts to a total of 1.4 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

Michel Rogy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy advisor at the World Bank and co-author of the report, highlighted that in order to create more ICT jobs, there is a need for government policies in this direction.

Rogy also described the UAE as “a leader in fiber optics” and highlighted that UAE was a global leader and has an edge when it comes to technology in relevance to broadband connectivity.

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director General at TRA, “In terms of UAE ranking, I’m not surprised about the [fiber optic] because we know that we are ranked number one globally… this emphasizes that the UAE has got a leading edge when it comes to technology, in terms of broadband connectivity, and so forth.”