Will the launch of du spark a second Middle East telecoms revolution?

Breaking the 30-year monopoly of incumbent Etisalat is only the first part of du's mission to reform the UAE's telecom sector. That this is occurring in the Arab world's second largest economy is highly significant and a pointer for the future.

With the launch of the Dubai Internet City in late 1999, the UAE took a belated step into the brave new online world. Now this Gulf State is hoping to catch up with the development of telecoms, at first with a greater variety of mobile telephony options, but high speed, low-cost Broadband services will be arguably an even greater ambition and challenge.

Du already has a vision of the future of modern telecoms in the Tecom zone telecoms system it bought after its initial public offering. This system offers high-speed, triple-play telephone, Internet and cable TV over a single IP network. It also extends into the neighboring Emaar residential communities which enjoy the highest standards of telecoms available in the Middle East.

Wireless Dubai?

The challenge for du will be to extend this early lead in technology to a wider area. There is talk about turning the whole of Dubai into a wireless Internet zone like that planned in San Francisco. The costs are not prohibitive and the spin-offs for business would be enormous with free Internet access opening up a myriad of new possibilities for services and online retail.

The telecom multinationals have also not been slow in recognizing this new regional potential. Both BT and Orange, the respective national champions of the UK and France, are busy raising their profile to alert other potential regional customers about the possibilities, particularly triple-play networks.

BT also has a fusion technology with mobile phones that switch automatically from roaming connections to fixed line bases, so that you only ever use one phone.

Political will

Clearly the innovative products to take the new telecoms revolution now sweeping the Middle East are available now. What is needed is the political will to put this technology into place for the benefit of the next generation.

The signs are encouraging. Qatar Telecom has just lost its monopoly in a copycat move by the authorities, and we can expect to see a Qatari version of du in due course. Elsewhere Etisalat's mobile network in Saudi Arabia, Mobily, is performing ahead of expectations, bringing new choice to millions of citizens.

However, the best is yet to come. For the time being du will have its hands full supplying hundreds of thousands of SIM cards and completing its 2G and 3G networks. But this is a rolling revolution and there is plenty more to come. For the cost of telecoms technology is falling and a great deal can be achieved with expenditure that is modest by the current standards of the Middle East.