Etisalat Participates in the Arab Advisor Group’s 8th Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference

“A new and innovative economic model is required for the development of the sector involving telecoms companies, content providers and application developers”
Mohammed Omran, Chairman of Etisalat has participated in the Arab Advisors Group’s 8^th Media and Telecoms Convergence conference which took place under the patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of El Hassan Science City and the Royal Scientific Society in Amman this week. Here he contributed to the keynote panel discussion on the “State of the Industry – Reflections of 2010-11 and beyond”.
In his speech, Omran said that: “2010 was a challenging year for everyone, although growth was still apparent in the telecoms and technology industries. This indicates that our sector has resilience and is still performing strongly. This is being driven by the success of Internet services which are fuelling demand for capacity and the need to develop networks to accommodate increasing consumption.”
He predicted: “In the coming period we will witness a series of mergers involving small and medium-sized operators which may transform them into powerful regional competitors. This is especially likely as penetration rates are very high in some markets which is limiting growth opportunities in the region.”
Omran continued saying: “The evolution of technology and the introduction of advanced services is happening so quickly that mobile phones have become more than just devices for making calls. They are developing into increasingly powerful mobile computers that can be taken anywhere and which enable Internet browsing and access to sophisticated services at any time.”
He added: “Convergence between telecommunications and the media is therefore inevitable and is resulting in a leap in demand for data and content. We see a doubling in the size of the market and this will create a major challenge for our industry as we search for a new economic model that will support a sustainable future for the Internet and communications.”
Mohammed Omran said: “Etisalat has great experience in introducing technologies and provisioning services and has played a great role in meeting the needs of customers. This has been proven time and again whether through our next-generation fiber-optic fixed-line network, or 4G wireless broadband infrastructures.”
Etisalat’s chairman concluded: “Etisalat is investing billions of dollars to establish fiber-optic infrastructure in the UAE to meet the growing demand for data traffic and especially video services. This will ensure that the UAE is the world’s first fully fiber-connected country. We will also continue to roll out our mobile infrastructure and international networks which have helped transform the UAE into the regional hub for the Internet.”
The Arab Advisor Group’s Media and Telecoms Convergence conference aims to shed light on the post-convergence era. Hundreds of leading figures from the telecoms sector participated in the conference this year.