Cooperation between telecom companies expected to continue

Dubai : For the first time, residents and offices at Burj Dubai and its surrounding area will be able to choose between etisalat and du, the two telecom providers in the UAE.

While it's always been that each telecom provider is allocated certain regions throughout the country, the two providers will now compete to attract more customers within the same area.

Burj Dubai's developer Emaar said that it wanted both providers to be available so that customers have "the liberty to choose the service they want".

Though this collaboration makes the competition fiercer, etisalat said that cost is not necessarily expected to come down. "Competition lies in the quality of service we provide," said Khalifa Al Shamsi, senior vice president of etisalat's marketing division.

Etisalat, which carried out the design and implementation of the mobile infrastructure at Burj Dubai, will offer its telecom services such as 30 Mbps broadband connectivity, IPTV, High Definition TV and Video on Demand as well as wireless services over Wimax and LTE standards.

"This is a technological achievement," said Al Shamsi. "Etisalat has spent a lot of their engineering and design to provide the world's tallest tower with their telecom services." Similarly, residents will benefit from du's services such as a 24 Mbps broadband connectivity, IPTV, Video on Demand, among other services.

When asked about how this cooperation happened, Al Shamsi said that this isn't the first time etisalat and du have provided telecom services for the same location.

Both providers are available at Dubai Mall, the DIFC and Marina Mall, and "there is no reason why this cooperation wouldn't happen again in the future," Al Shamsi said,

Du respresentatives could not be reached for comment, but in a statement released Wednesday du said that the move is in-line with their efforts to expand their network connections across the UAE.