Etisalat tops 100 million global subscribers

The UAE’s Etisalat has announced its customer base has exceeded 100 million subscribers, across 18 markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. A breakdown of these numbers by market has not been disclosed.

Etisalat has operations and investments in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Togo, Republic of Central Africa, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. It is interesting to note that the firm entered 10 of these markets only in the past five years.

In its domestic market, the operator counted more than 7.74 million mobile lines in the UAE in 2009, an increase of six per cent year-on-year. Fixed line subscribers numbered 1.31 million, while the telco’s Internet customer base rose 16 per cent to reach 1.33 million end-December.