Etisalat has been named the Best Operator in Emerging Markets 2010, at the TMT Finance and Investments Middle East 2010 conference, which took place in Doha this week. TMT is one of the largest conferences which hosts a large number of financing and investment decision makers in the telecommunications world, as well as consulting companies.
The award recognizes the operator that has achieved remarkable growth in emerging markets. Etisalat won this award for its investment policy in emerging markets and its operation plans during the post acquisition period. This was especially noted in markets with high populations and low penetration for mobile services, such as Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.
In Egypt, Etisalat has showcased international standards in delivering services and deploying network infrastructure. Etisalat extended its network across the country in a far shorter time than what it was given through the license. Etisalat was able to extend the network in two years instead of five years.
In Saudi Arabia, Mobily has recorded many significant achievements and it was able to build more than 1000 masts during the first five months of developing the network. The first 3G license in KSA was given to Mobily in July 2004. After that Etisalat started an active launch campaign, and it started building the GSM network in September 2004. Then it launched GSM commercial services in May 2005 and within 18 months it was able to cover 90% of the Saudi population. By the end of 2007, Mobily acquired a large market share including approximately 10 million customers.
Etisalat looks forward to increasing its subscriber base through its international operations where it continues to develop its services. On the international level, Etisalat is one of the few countries that focus on investing in developed infrastructure when entering international markets as well as creating strategic partnerships with the different society components. Etisalat is not only a new operator in these markets but also represents an added value to them. Etisalat was the first to introduce 3.75 services in Egypt and KSA in addition to many other achievements.
Etisalat also invested in developing its fixed line infrastructure in the Middle East and Africa. Etisalat led a technological revolution in the region by extending fiberto connect all households in the UAE. As part of this project, Abu Dhabi will be the first capital city in the world covered completely with fiber optic infrastructure services and the UAE will be one of the first countries worldwide to be entirely covered with fiber optics services during 2011. Etisalat also achieved a remarkable success in extending fiber to the home networks in Sudan.
Etisalat has recently increased taken sole ownership of Atlantic Telecom - which covers seven African countries and also increased its share in Zantel to 65%.
Today Etisalat is among the world’s best 20 telecom operators and it is one of the leading companies in introducing new technologies in the region. It was the first to bring in a number of services including 3G, BlackBerry and many other developed services.
These achievements led Etisalat to provide its services to more than 107 million customers in 18 countries Asia and Africa and covering around 2 billion people.
Today Etisalat has the largest roaming services network in the region through collaborating with 520 operators covering 190 country world wide.
Etisalat is ranked as the 17th international operator based on its market capitalisation, and the 15th telecom company based on its net profits, according to FT500 world largest companies in 2009. Etisalat obtained international corporate credit ratings from Moody's (Aa3), from Standard & Poor's (A+) and from Fitch Ratings (AA).
