Abu Dhabi: Etisalat has finished making plans to set up a smart city to cater to the Expo 2020 guest needs, officials in the capital said.
“During 2015, Etisalat investments within the UAE will reach about Dh4 billion and around 49 per cent of Etisalat’s revenue comes from investments abroad,” said Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, Etisalat Group’s Chief Executive Officer. He was speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Regarding the Saudi Mobily crisis, Julfar revealed that Etisalat had lost about Dh400 million since the UAE company owns a large share of its Saudi counterpart. “However, Etisalat is confident that it can overcome the loss and that Mobily will become a strong player in the Saudi market during 2015,” he added.
Mobily had reported making $243 million (Dh892 million) in losses during 2014 before removing its chief executive and breaching several loan agreements. Mobily’s shares have been suspended and had fallen by 56 per cent since an accounting scandal was first made public in November of last year.
Julfar thanked the Saudi government for the way it handled the Mobily situation.
Meanwhile, Etisalat’s CEO, Saleh Al Abdouli, said that the company is going to introduce the fifth generation 5G technology for smartphones and applications during the next five years and before the 2020 Expo is held.
“Etisalat is going to be one of the first telecommunication companies in the Middle East to provide users with 5G as will be done to its UAE network. Currently, work on the infrastructure necessary to make this introduction possible is under way. By the end of 2017, Etisalat will roll out 4.5G technology by 40 to 50 per cent while work on 5G is being done so that the project is 100 per cent complete by 2019,” he said.
Finally, Al Abdouli added that the 5G technology means that internet browsing speed will become 100 times faster as it currently is using 4G. It currently takes about 15 seconds to get information, but with 5G, 0.1 seconds is all the time it will take to obtain the same data.
