Dubai: Mobile subscriber numbers in the UAE have grown 14.77 per cent in the first quarter of this year, to 18.88 million compared to 16.45 million a year ago.
Etisalat had 11.4 million subscribers in the first quarter of this year while du had 7.48 million. In the same period a year ago, Etisalat had 8.90 million subscribers while du had 7.55 million.
“The strategy to grow for telcos is more to do with value-adding solutions such as Mobile Wallet, Mobile Connect, faster and secure connectivity etc. At the same time subscriber base is also likely to grow significantly as country prepares to Expo 2020,” Sukhdev Singh, associate vice-president at market research and analysis services provider AMRB, told Gulf News.
He said the UAE market is going to be an exciting ground for service providers — on one side one expects launch of new services, and on the other side subscriber base would also continue to swell at a healthy rate till 2020.
Matthew Reed, practice leader for Ovum’s Middle East and Africa, said that services associated with machine-to-machine and the internet of Things will typically only account for a very small proportion of telecoms operators’ revenues, even in advanced markets.
“But more broadly, the internet of Things refers to profound changes in the way that society and businesses are connected, and those changes are likely to create new challenges and opportunities for operators,” he said.
