Mobile
Fibre networks to boost UAE IPTV market
Editor ©RapidTVNews | 19-08-2010
Increasing broadband penetration and the switch to a nationwide all-fibre network by 2011 will provide a spur to fixed broadband services in the UAE over the next five years, generating $1.01 billion in revenues by 2015, up from $695 million in 2010.
These are the headline findings of a new report by Pyramid Research which predicts that now the UAE telecom market has caught up with those of the developed world in terms of service penetration, it can look forward to healthy but not dramatic growth between 2010 and 2015.
The analyst believes that the key change will be the switch from copper to fibre fixed-line infrastructure that is currently underway and due to be completed by 2011. As well as providing a boost to broadband revenue, the change will likely lead to growth in pay-TV adoption, as operators use value added services to make IPTV services significantly more attractive than those of satellite operators
Pyramid identifies the fact that Du, the smaller and newer of the UAE's two operators, has initially taken the lead with fibre deployment, but noted Hussam Barhoush, Senior Analyst at Pyramid Research, the competition is only beginning, with Etisalat for one planning to have upgraded its whole fixed network to fibre by 2011. "Etisalat has already caught up and surpassed its new rival in terms of fibre rollout: Abu Dhabi, was the first capital in the world to be all fibre, as Etisalat connected the city to the 'elife' FTTH network," Barhoush said.
