FOR RELEASE ON
December 20, 2006
Contact: Nermeen Negm, Marketing Manager
Tel: 971.4.348.7473
E-mail: nnegm(a)samenacouncil.org
URL: www.samenacouncil.org
UAE’S du BECOMES
SAMENA MEMBER Top
DUBAI, UAE — SAMENA Telecommunications Council has
announced that UAE’s second operator, du, has joined its Membership.
Chief Executive Mr. Osman Sultan communicated that, “we are nearing
our launch in UAE. It is part of our mission to be confident, honest,
and friendly. We feel that it was in our best interest to join SAMENA
and to obtain a platform that would help us explore options, which
would allow us to better provide in-demand services to our emerging
customer base, and to more actively deal with emerging challenges
in telecom.”
SAMENA’s senior vice president for business development, Mr. Bocar
A. Ba, emphasized that “du is an emerging symbol of healthy competition
in the UAE market. Both SAMENA and du are situated in an ideal place,
where competition is about to emerge and where telecom challenges
will surface more freely now. SAMENA will have a tremendous opportunity
to interact with du and to work with its resourceful management.
du’s joining us is a very significant development.”
SAMENA Telecommunications Council welcomes du on board, and looks
forward to working with its leadership to introduce innovations
in the UAE market and play other potential roles through educated
dialogue.
du is the new integrated telecommunications service provider that
aims to enhance the customer experience in UAE; a country that enjoys
the highest teledensity rate in the SAMENA region. The company joins
UAE’s telecom scene with a fresh approach to telecommunications.
Despite Etisalat’s dominance in the market, du expects to secure
over 25% of the market share during its first two years of operations.
About SAMENA
SAMENA Telecommunications Council is a tri-regional, non-profit
telecommunications association that embodies a community of South
Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African telecoms operators, manufacturers,
regulatory authorities, and academia. SAMENA aims to be the ultimate
promoter of collaboration and knowledge-sharing in the SAMENA region
that spans 25 countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,
Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
The Council is driven by telecoms issues that operators in South
Asia, the Middle East, and in North Africa face, and is determined
in providing its advocacy expertise to help aid incubation of novel
approaches and ideas that would provide better means for the expansion
and utilization of telecommunications in the region.
Headquartered in Dubai, SAMENA is chaired by Dr. Mohammed Ali Al
Wohaibi, Executive President, Omantel and is directed by Mr. Thomas
W. Wilson, CEO, Teralight.