With the UAE’s mobile penetration rate above 200 per cent, and the country’s two serviced operators pushing technological advances to their networks and services all the time, regulating the market in a manner that enhances and not harms it is a delicate balance to maintain. The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has been undertaking this task since 2004, and its director general, Mohamed Al Ghanim highlights the regulator’s policy direction and areas of focus

Mohamed Al Ghanim believes customers must be offered a choice of alternatives whenever possible

Speaking at a conference in Dubai late last year, Etisalat’s chief corporate aff

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Greg Brown became CEO of Motorola at the start of 2008, at a time when the company’s handset business was in steep decline having failed to recapture the momentum generated by the introduction of the iconic RAZR handset in 2005. Almost two years into his tenure, moves are underway to separate the handset business of Motorola from the network business, and Brown sounds more optimistic about Motorola’s future than at any time in the past

Brown says Motorola will continue to focus on existing customers, 4G, and over time, public safety

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On July 1, Nayla Khawam became CEO of Jordan Telecom Group Orange. Her predecessor, Mickael Ghossein was instrumental in transforming the incumbent from a stodgy government utility into a commercial integrated company, and Khawam’s early focus will likely be on driving the gains from integration. Jordan is a notoriously competitive market and part of Khawam’s mandate is to continue to differentiate Jordan Telecom’s services, and make the telco an operator of reference

Nayla Khawam is a France Telecom veteran whose eye for detail will likely see her focussiong her efforts on the further improvement of the overall Orange experience

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A consortium comprising of Etisalat, Du, Abu Dhabi Media Company, Dubai Media Incorporated, Emirates Communications and Technologies Company, a subsidiary of TECOM Investment, and MBC has been granted a licence to provide mobile TV broadcasting services for 10 years. The licence fee amounts to AED 17 million (US$4.6 million), with an additional royalty also be applied on the company. The TRA has agreed to grant the consortium exclusivity to provide the broadcast mobile TV for five years that will end on December 31, 2014.

The consortium has selected to utilise DVB-H technology, and will provide its services to Etisalat and Du, which will in turn offer a variety of competitive and exclusive mobile TV packages to their subscribers. With that, the TRA says it has maintained competition between the companies and reduced the capital expenditure of building networks in the UAE, which will have a positive impact on end-user pricing.

The company is expected to provide at least 13 channels for subscribers of the live TV broadcasting service. The service is expected to commence in Q410 and will cover majority of the UAE population. The UAE will be the first country to issue such licence in the region.

Mobily has announced the signing of a SAR 600 million (US$160 million) deal with Ericsson for the expansion of the coverage and capacity of the operator’s mobile network, including HSPA.

This is Mobily’s second major announcement this year for its 3.75G network, following a statement in March announcing the roll out of HSUPA; which made it one of 31 operators around the world at the time to provide a full HSPA experience according to the GSMA.

Mobily counts 800,000 active HSPA subscribers, who together consume more than one gigabyte of data a month, and who contribute to an overall mobile data exchange of 42 terabytes a day, making Mobily’s HSPA network the busiest in the world.

Today, Mobily’s HSPA network covers 78 per cent of all populated areas and offers customers an average speed of 1.8 Mbps on a HSPA network that supports speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps. Mobily has successfully covered more than 326 cities and towns in the kingdom with the 3.5G and 3.75G.

The contract awarded to Ericsson will increase network capacity and triple mobile broadband speeds, giving Mobily’s customers a faster broadband Internet experience. The contract awarded to Ericsson comes as part of the operator’s commitment to its mobile broadband customer base and as part of a series of other capacity expansion contracts with other global vendors including Huawei and Nokia Siemens.