Dubai: The telecom operators in the region should follow the practice in the West of offering fully subsidised smartphones to consumers for 4G LTE to gain traction, industry experts told Gulf News.

“On the corporate level, the operators offer subsidies but they should also focus on consumers. The phones are not subsidised really in the UAE by telco operators for consumers and what they offer is discounted data packages,” said Hamza Saleem, senior research analyst at IDC.

He said it will take time for the operators to offer similar packages as in the West as the population here is very small.

In the US and UK, people buy the bundled data package and they get the phone fully subsidised.

“The operators in the region should follow the Western practice but I know it will not be feasible as the population here is small,” he said.

Jonas Zelba, senior telecom research analyst at Frost and Sullivan, said that the telco operators are partially subsidising devices right now, but not fully. If they can do as in the West, then definitely 4G LTE can gain momentum in the region.

But Saleem said 4G LTE devices will take time to gain momentum in the region and many people are not keen to shell extra money for the device. Many still don’t see LTE as a necessity.

Smaller shops

Many consumers go and buy smartphones from smaller shops than malls and main distributors to save around Dh50-Dh60. They get it cheaper with warranty.

Etisalat Group signed a deal with Samsung to bring the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer’s products to 15 of the telco operator’s markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia recently.

Zelba said the etisalat-Samsung deal will benefit both the companies as Samsung will get the better access to the market while etisalat will get newer subscribers and contract for a couple of years.

They will be able to “lock-in newer customers for a couple of years. Telecom operators are looking at similar deals like these constantly. Definitely, more deals like these will happen in future,” he said.

Saleem said the etisalat deal with Samsung will benefit only customers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia because many of the African countries where etisalat operators do not have LTE networks.

Future

Even though it is slow for the time being, the future will be LTE driven.

Very good bundled LTE offers come from Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt.

“Bundled data packages offered by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are cheaper than in Dubai. They have many smartphone models than offered in Dubai. Dubai is not more into bundle packaging than some other Gulf countries. UAE operators don’t subsidise the phones,” Saleem said.

He said data is cheaper in Saudi Arabia than UAE but UAE has the highest number of internet and data users in the Middle East.