Du CEO says no plans to launch own brand mobile phone

The UAE's second telecom operator Du said on Wednesday it had no immediate plans to follow rival Etisalat and launch its own brand mobile phone.

Osman Sultan, CEO of Du, said that while he couldn't rule it out forever, the company had other priorities.

Last week, Etisalat unveiled its first self-branded mobile phone at the GITEX technology show in Dubai.

The Etisalat 211 FM can be bought bundled for AED265 and the company said the launch was the first of more self-branded devices coming on to the market in the future.

But asked about the possibility of a Du-branded mobile phone, Sultan said: "We have no plans at the moment. I wouldn't rule it out completely but just now we want to concentrate on current services and giving value to our customers."

"We don't want to get distracted by 1,001 different things. We want to do better than what we are doing now," Sultan said at a joint press conference with Vodafone in Dubai.

Du said it was spending AED2.5 billion ($681 million) on its infrastructure in 2009. Sultan ruled out the possibility of expanding outside the UAE at the moment.

Du and Vodafone have a Partner Market agreement and are exploring initiatives including broadband connectivity products, secure remote mobile access for small business users, converged email solutions, faster and exclusive access to new models of handsets.

The non-equity strategic agreement, effective from January of this year, means that Du enjoys exclusive access to Vodafone’s range of products, devices and services in the UAE.

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