Dubai: Competition for home services, which includes fixed-line and internet services, has opened up in the UAE as both the telecom operators — etisalat and du — implemented a shared network infrastructure agreement, which started on July 14.
As a result, etisalat customers can switch to du’s network or du customers can switch to etisalat network, depending on consumers’ choice.
Right now, only fixed phone and internet come under the sharing deal but the streaming services offered by Du, called IPTV, will only be implemented after three quarters.
The talks between the operators began in 2009 for networking sharing deal — where one operator can permit the other to use its fixed network for a fee — but the operators were not able to reach an agreement.
Du had previous said the infrastructure sharing will be implemented by end of last year, but that did not happen.
Etisalat lost its telecom monopoly when du entered the market in 2007 and both the firms have been offering telecom services since. However, they operators had a set area of coverage, meaning there has been no real competition.
Du primarily serves the newly developed areas and free zones in Dubai, and etisalat serves the rest of the market and is by far the dominant operator.
“We have started a progressive and controlled launch of network sharing for three months. We have a set of numbers where customers can switch between the operators before opening the taps later,” Osman Sultan, CEO of du, told Gulf News.
Etisalat had previously announced an agreement been reached but was not available for further comment.
Everything — operationally and financially — has been agreed with etisalat. Both the operators are looking and analysing to fix minor issues on the operational side.
Sultan said the deal was implemented only for limited consumers per month and not for enterprises, which will require each operator to package and design different suite of services.
“It is operationally not feasible with network sharing right now,” he said.
