Etisalat leads the fiber revolution; partners regional FTTx MEGNA conference

As a strategic operator partner, Etisalat's participation strengthened its recently announced tie-up with Informa Telecoms and Media to collaborate for the region's most coveted upcoming global events in 2009 and 2010. Focused on accelerating the pace of the Middle East's march toward next-generation, high-speed, all-fiber networks, FTTx MEGNA 2009 is the first-in-series of all the renowned regional ICT events by Informa Media and Telecoms that Etisalat will collaborate in as an exclusive strategic operator partner.

FTTx MEGNA 2009 follows on from last year's extremely successful event which featured the leading operators from across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. A two-day conference held on 27 and 28 October, FTTx MEGNA brought together region's leading operators who shared insights, strategies and experiences in fiber deployment and services such as HDTV and triple play.

Addressing the audience at the conference, Khalifa Al Shamsi, Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Etisalat outlined Etisalat's plans in transforming the UAE to a fiber-connected nation,

"Leading the fiber revolution in the region, Etisalat's technology vision is being realized with our nationwide eLife FTTH roll-out in the UAE that will render Abu Dhabi as the first Capital City in the world with 100% fiber deployment by the end of this year. Also set to make UAE one of the first countries in the world to have nationwide FTTH deployment by 2011, we are committed to introduce a new era of household communication and entertainment in our customer's lives."

Currently Etisalat has already connected over 500,000 homes through e-Life, and plans to connect over 1m homes by the year 2011. Etisalat had also recently announced the fastest broadband speed of 30Mbps in the Middle East, already made available to its customers through its eLife Fiber to the Home (FTTH) network.

"Besides providing faster speeds, the e-Life network will add significant value to consumer lifestyles, enabling them to achieve much more than what is possible today. With its high-speed Internet offering speed up to 100 Mbps, eLife will boost adoption of new age internet services like IPTV, Video On Demand , and online gaming, creating future smart homes." Khalifa added.

Highlighting the substantial direct and indirect contribution of FTTH technology to the nation's economic productivity and growth, Khalifa said. "Over and above the direct benefits to national economies with increased output, higher investments, employment generation, FTTH deployment also has an enabler effect by enhancing other sectors' performances, augmenting service exports and attracting foreign direct investments."

"The eLife network will assist the UAE government to achieve its objectives of holistic and sustainable development, in the social, economic, infrastructural and rural growth areas. eLife will also enable UAE to move up by 5-8 ranks in the 'e-readiness index', conducted by The Economist every year, that ranks countries on the basis of parameters like technology connectivity, infrastructure and business environments", he added.

eLife, which is based on the FTTH (Fibre-to-the-home) network, is a project undertaken by Etisalat to enable the future of endless possibilities and technologies made available to all fixed line customers and UAE households by end of 2011. At the FTTx exhibition, Etisalat demonstrated triple play, fixed broadband with the highest speeds of up to 100MBps; multi-media phone, a fixed line phone that customers can use to browse the internet and other applications like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, weather forecast and much more.