# Du stands by plans to launch by year-end



## Krazy (Apr 27, 2004)

*Du stands by plans to launch by year-end*

Du’s chief executive officer Osman Sultan has countered a report from Shuaa Capital that the company will not be able to launch its nationwide mobile service by year-end. “We are still standing by this statement,” Sultan told Emirates Today, but conceded that building mobile infrastructure is a “complex operation” that requires permits from various entities.

“This is a process and although everybody has been cooperative, sometimes certain things happen within timeframes. We are still hoping to launch services by the end of the year.” Earlier this week investment bank Shuaa Capital had cast doubts in a report about whether du will be able to launch its services by the yearend. The report, which primarily focused on du’s competitor etisalat, also assessed the two companies’ future prospects in the UAE’s competitive market.

Shuaa also forecast that du would achieve slower market share uptake in its initial years of operation in the UAE than the mobile operator has publicly committed to.

“We anticipate a further delay in the company’s launch of commercial operations in the early first quarter 2007 as the two telecom operators concluded negotiations on commercial and technical issues in early August 2006,” Shuaa said in the report released on Sunday.

“The network agreement detailing interconnection charges (revenues sharing) in particular should be signed the first week of September 2006 under the umbrella of the Telecom Regulatory Authority,” it added, saying that the two sides were initially supposed to reach an agreement by the end of February.

Sultan said that “one outstanding point” remains unresolved between etisalat and du in relation to the interconnection agreement, which will be mediated under the umbrella of the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA).

The two parties are also still in ongoing negotiations over infrastructure sharing agreements for fixed services and broadband infrastructure.

Shuaa Capital was also more conservative about the second operator’s potential market share intentions for its first years in operation.

Shuaa forecasts that du will achieve 10 per cent market share, or 613,606 subscribers in 2007, rising to 15 per cent (990,143) in 2008, 19 per cent (1.2 million) in 2009 and 23 per cent (1.7 million) in 2010.

This is lower than the 30 per cent du aims to achieve in three years – a figure Shuaa regards as “ambitious”.

“Though population growth in the UAE is high and expatriate workforce is important, we find this objective ambitious as both operators and the TRA insisted on the fact that competition will not be based on tariffs and that there will be no price war,” Shuaa said.

Sultan, again, begged to differ with the estimates. “Without being specific, I think our ambition is higher. We are targeting to reach 30 per cent market share after three years of service,” he said.


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

i don't want to disappoint anyone here.. but they wanted to start their services almost a year ago...


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## smussuw (Feb 1, 2004)

^^ they've always said that they will start by the 4th quarter. They couldnt have started last year anyway because they didnt have a license.


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