ICT usage by businesses grows

Dubai: A sweeping assessment of 1,500 businesses in the UAE reveals information and communications technology (ICT) has penetrated nine out of ten establishments across the country.

A new survey released yesterday by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) focused on business reliance upon a variety of telecom services such as fixed telephony, mobile telephony, the internet, and e-commerce.

The survey was reserved for businesses with ten or more workers in their employ.

Mohammad Al Ghanem, director general of the TRA, said the data will help the authority better understand the business sector.

"The provision of accurate and timely ICT information provides important input into the overall assessment of the ICT sector in the UAE, and is therefore key to the effective and efficient functioning of this sector," Al Ghanem said in statement. "The TRA conducts these surveys every two years and considers them important to informing stakeholders, and the general public of the state of the ICT sector in the UAE."

The survey also helped to identify important trends among businesses that depend on information and communications technology to conduct daily operations.

Satisfaction levels

Compiled technology penetration statistics hovered only slightly above satisfaction levels reported by respondents.

For example, 96 per cent of businesses own a personal computer with 92 per cent reporting an internet connection while a further 99 per cent had a fixed line service.

By comparison, 87 per cent of fixed line subscribers were satisfied with services offered by telecoms while 83 per cent were happy with their internet services. The numbers also gave TRA researchers a unique glimpse into the daily use of technology at workplaces across the country.

Most calls placed on a business fixed line were made to parties within the country while 28 per cent of ‘total international calls from a fixed phone were from India,' the survey stated.

Two-thirds of businesses surveyed said they spent more than Dh1,000 a month on their fixed telephone lines.

On the mobile phone front, 60 per cent of businesses gave their workers a paid mobile phone but only 53 per cent of businesses subscribed to postpaid subscriptions.

Domestic calls placed from mobile phones represented 87 per cent of all calls from the mobile usage from businesses, the survey said.

Two-thirds of businesses spent more than Dh1,000 per month on mobile phone bills.

Business respondents told TRA researchers that broadband was an important part of operations as evidenced by a fixed broadband connection rate of 94 per cent of all businesses. Slightly more than half of businesses polled have broadband services with speeds of two Mbps or less.