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du Subscriptions Grew by 2pc in Six Months

ABU DHABI - du, UAE’s youngest telecom operator, has outmanoeuvred Etisalat with a two per cent growth in mobile subscriptions in the six months ending February 2009.

The overall active mobile subscribers’ rate has grown seven per cent in the country to reach 193 per cent at the end of February 2009, according to statistics from the Telecom Regulatory Authority, or TRA .

In September 2008, the active mobile subscribers’ rate was 182 per cent, where the new operator du gained 26 per cent of the market share and Etisalat 74 per cent. The new statistics of end-February, however, showed the share of du reaching 28 per cent of the active mobile subscribers, while Etisalat share dropped to 72 per cent, according to a TRA Press release.

Sensing the losing business at the hands of du, the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation, or Etisalat, approached the TRA for revising the prices of its telecommunication services.

It submitted its internal costs of providing services and other relevant details to the authority, as a mandatory condition for lowering the tariffs. The condition ensures that the company is not offering any service below the cost incurred, in order to ensure fair competition in the market, which has been deregulated with the arrival of du, three years ago. Etisalat has already slashed the prices of iPhones by 22 per cent, from last week.

In April, a controversy triggered when the chief executive officer of Etisalat observed that the TRA was sitting on its proposals sent for regulatory approval.

Figures for the first quarter of 2009 show that a large number the new mobile customers are buying du’s prepaid card.

du’s subscription jumped by 71,000 to 252,000 in the first quarter of the year, up against 181,000 in the fourth-quarter of last year, a cause of concern to telecom major Etisalat, which saw an addition of only 56,000 customers in the same period.

According to an analyst 130,000-140,000 Etisalat subscribers switched over to du’s system in the first quarter of the year. A source at Etisalat linked it to the price of du’s ‘Pay as you Go’ prepaid card, which is more cost effective at Dh55. On the other hand, Etisalat’s Wasel card not only costs Dh165 at the time of subscription but the customer has to pay Dh100 on its annual renewal.

· haseebhaider@khaleejtimes.com