Osman Sultan was behind the launch of the highly successful Mobinil in Egypt in 1998, and in 2007 was behind the launch of du , the UAE’s second telecoms operator, which is 40 percent owned by the UAE Federal Government, 20 percent by Mubadala Development Company , 20 percent by TECOM Investments and 20 percent by public shareholders.
In November, the operator posted profits of $42.7m, a near 400 percent increase on the same period last year, and a 36 percent rise from the previous quarter. The same month it announced it had over 3.4 million active subscribers, up from 2.1 million in the same quarter as 2008.
Under Sultan’s leadership du plans to invest $681m on its infrastructure this year and most recently announced plans to increase its mobile bandwidth by nearly 200 percent next year to enable faster streaming and downloading. The new enhanced network, which will vastly improve its online services, is set to cost the firm $85m.
According to a recent report by Al Mal Capital, du will account for 45 percent of the mobile market (up from an estimated 33 percent by the end of 2009). It also suggested that eight out of ten new users choose du over its rival, Etisalat .
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