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In the gritty streets of Deira, the old commercial heart of Dubai, lurks a threat to some of the region's biggest telecommunications firms.
It is here on the northern bank of Dubai creek, among the grocery stores and barbers, the discount tailors and food stalls, where low-wage workers come after a day's toil to phone their family and friends overseas.
Instead of using their pre-paid mobile phones, they cram into the sweaty booths of dilapidated backstreet internet shops to call home at prices a fraction of those charged by telecom operators Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates' most valuable listed company, and rival du.
These shops dodge government inspectors to offer unlicenced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services - free Internet-to-Internet calls and cheap Internet-to-phone calls. The UAE's regulator says only licenced companies can provide VoIP.
"It's less than a tenth of the cost of Etisalat, that's why I come here," said Mansour, 21. The Afghan works in a Deira clothes shop and calls his family in Kabul three times a week from a 14-booth VoIP shop run by managers Mamun and Shajib, both 22.
The Bangladeshi pair have been offering VoIP services for more than a year and spoke on condition that their full names and company details were not disclosed.
"For internet we can only charge AED3 ($0.82) an hour and that's not enough to pay two salaries, shop rent, licences and broadband costs," said Shajib. "We would have shut if it wasn't for VoIP, but this is very popular and more and more people are telling their friends.
"Most people's salaries are not even AED1,400 per month and they can't spend much on the telephone, so that's why they come here. If Etisalat or du offered the same rates as us, we would close down tomorrow."
Internet-to-phone calls via Skype, the global leader for consumer VoIP, are intermittently blocked in the UAE, but the Deira shops also use other programmes such as Calls Telecom and Call World for internet-to-phone calls, and these seem to work without hindrance.
Rates start at AED0.1 per minute to phone a landline in India, with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka the other top destinations, Shajib said. Prices to these countries are about AED0.25 per minute on average.
To call India, Etisalat and du charge AED1.89 per minute for off-peak calls between 9 pm and 7am and AED2.40 at other times.
The regulator sets their tariffs, so the two operators cannot directly compete on price and instead tout various call packages. Etisalat offers subscribers a 60 percent discount on late-night calls to the subcontinent, but its fees are still much higher than the rates offered by Shajib and rival shops.
Etisalat operates across 18 countries but three-quarters of its revenue comes from the UAE, while du is a single-country carrier, and international calls are among their biggest income streams. So VoIP is potentially disastrous for them.
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As much as I love the UAE, this will be a problem for them in the future. Lets look at this from any democratic Country on Earth. If I decided not to turn... more
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 11:56 AM - Ty SaySalman Al, perhaps nobody has informed you of the fact that Britain has been 'paying back' for decades now, in giving safe haven to a vast swathe of imigrants... more
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 1:33 PM - MarkWell, don't you know that these were AMERICANS!! The most ignorant nation in the World!!! May God continue to bless America! more
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 4:34 PM - Kazim MuneerAs much as I love the UAE, this will be a problem for them in the future. Lets look at this from any democratic Country on Earth. If I decided not to turn... more
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 11:56 AM - Ty SayLet me put the entire issue in perspective. There are massive traffic problems on the roads of Kuwait, where Kuwait can boast high road fatalities and... more
Tuesday, 21 May 2013 1:28 PM - AbdullahSalman Al, perhaps nobody has informed you of the fact that Britain has been 'paying back' for decades now, in giving safe haven to a vast swathe of imigrants... more
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 1:33 PM - MarkHappy employees, happy customers. Quite simple actually. 60,000 unhappy staff, well, you do the math on how many unhappy customers can result from poor... more
Monday, 20 May 2013 10:27 AM - Louie TedescoIslam is not better than any other religion, to all the muslims out there, stop putting yourself on a pedestal, you are filled with self importance that... more
Tuesday, 14 May 2013 9:58 AM - graemeAs much as I love the UAE, this will be a problem for them in the future. Lets look at this from any democratic Country on Earth. If I decided not to turn... more
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 11:56 AM - Ty Say
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