The TRA Releases the Seventh Annual UAE Telecommunications Sector Review

Mobilk - The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has released today its Seventh Annual Review of the Telecommunications Sector in the country. The report summarizes the status of fixed line, mobile and data telecom markets in terms of numbers of subscribers as well as service penetration levels, revenues and usage rates. This years Review covers 4 years, from 2012 to 2015.

Commenting on this report, H.E Majed Al Mesmar, Acting Director General of TRA, said: "This report provides various parameters such as subscriber numbers, penetration rates, revenues, and traffic volumes for the years 2012 – 2015, and it also outlines the UAEs rankings in various international indexes and studies.

The results presented in this report reaffirm the vibrant and robust nature of the UAEs telecommunications sector. Subscriber numbers and usage volumes have continued to grow, while the Licensees have worked tirelessly to respond to evolving consumers demands. In TRA, we emphasize on the important enabling role of the sector in supporting the economy to prosper, allowing companies to interact, and most importantly, enabling users to communicate."

H.E. Al Mesmar added: "The data contained in this report is provided by the two licensed operators in the country; Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (du). It covers several aspects including the numbers of subscribers, and the total service volumes for fixed lines, mobile and internet data services. The report results reflect the ongoing efforts of TRA to control and regulate this sector as it is one of the key enablers of sustainable development in the UAE, as well as an important pillar in attracting investments by offering advanced infrastructure."

 

The full report is published on TRA website and can be accessed through the following link:  http://www.tra.gov.ae/en/open-data/annual-market-review.aspx

 

The main findings revealed by the Review for 2016 are:

 

·       Average monthly revenue per user of fixed telephony services is AED 102 with the average of 126 minutes of calls per fixed line per month.

·       Average revenue per user for mobile services is AED 112 per month with average monthly call volumes of 151 minutes.

·       For internet services, the average monthly revenue reached AED 416 per user.

·       The number of fixed line services in the UAE reached more than 2.258 million subscriptions, with a service penetration rate of 26.4% 

·        The number of active mobile subscriptions has continued to grow, reaching about 18 million by the end of 2015 with a penetration rate of 209.8%, which is one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world.

·       The number of pre-paid subscriptions has grown to over 15 million subscribers, while the number of post-paid subscribers has reached almost 3 million.

·       Total international traffic from mobile phones reached 11.15 billion minutes in 2015, compared to 9.25 billion minutes in 2014.

·       The total mobile traffic reached 31.49 billion minutes in 2015, compared to 28.70 billion minutes in 2014.

·       Traffic over the mobile networks increased by 10% in 2015 compared to 2014.

·       The mobile subscription volumes increased by 7% in 2015 compared to 2014.

·       Total internet revenues increased by 30% in 2015 compared to 2014.

·       The number of internet subscribers increased by 13% in 2015 compared to 2014, reaching to 1.235 million subscribers.

·       The total level of internet revenues increased by 30% to reach almost AED 5.98 billion.

·       Bangladesh recorded the highest number of minutes of international calls initiated from the UAE, with a rate of 43% of all international calls.

·       The total number of SMSs decreased from 2 million in 2014 to about 1.5 million in 2015, and the number of MMS has decreased from 20 million in 2014 to 6 million messages in 2015.

 

The report also revealed an increasing tendency of customers to subscribe to high-speed internet services, as more than 84% of the population have subscribed to internet at speeds that exceed 4 Mbps in 2015.