UAE broadband subscribers rise to new high, says TRA

Broadband internet subscriptions in the UAE hit a new high in April, according to latest data released by the country's telecoms regulator.

Broadband customer numbers reached nearly 880,000 in April, almost 50,000 more than at the beginning of 2011, statistics published by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority have showed.

At the same time, the number of dial-up internet subscribers has fallen to 540,793 (down by nearly 33,000 since the start of the year) as more customers sign up for the faster broadband packages offered by Etisalat and du.

The TRA figures also showed a rise in active mobile phone subscriptions in the UAE in April.

Around 20,000 extra subscriptions were seen in the month from March bringing the total to nearly 11.1 million.

According to TRA calculations, this translates to a mobile penetration rate of 196.1 subscriptions per 100 people in the UAE.

Fixed line subscriptions also hit record highs in April, the TRA said, with a total of 1,731,659, representing a penetration of just over 30 percent.

Earlier this year, UAE telco Etisalat said it would be spending $15bn on overhauling its networks to deliver the fastest possible broadband speeds.

The company, which is majority-owned by the UAE government, will allocate $5bn of the funding on expanding its fibre optic network in a bid to make the UAE one of the top-five connected countries worldwide, chairman Mohammed Omran said.

Revenue from fixed broadband services in the UAE is due to increase by 45 percent to $1.01bn over the next five years, a report by US telecommunications research company Pyramid Research said last year.

It forecast that the revenue from the broadband market would hit $1.01bn by 2015, up from $695m in 2010.

Pyramid said the growth will be as a result of increasing broadband penetration and the switch to a nationwide all-fibre network.