Original telecommunications market research and telecommunications sector trend analysis for the national telecommunications industry.

Competitive intelligence, regional telecommunications company rankings and SWOT analyses on international and domestic telecommunications companies.

The Report provides industry professionals and researchers, operators, equipment suppliers and vendors, corporate and financial services analysts and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the national telecommunications industry.

" The Asia Telecommunications Report is used for benchmarking industry views against BMI's independent forecasts; for market research and analysis of industry trends. It also provides competitive intelligence on leading companies. "
Chi-Wen Tsai, Managing Director, ROHDE & SCHWARZ Taiwan Ltd

Key Benefits of Report

-Benchmark BMI's Independent 5-Year Telecommunications Industry Forecast to test other views - a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the national telecommunications market.
-Target Business Opportunities & Risks in the Telecommunications Sector through our reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes, and major deals, projects and investments.
-Exploit Latest Competitive Telecommunications Intelligence & company SWOTS on your competitors and peers through company rankings by sales, market share, investments and leading products and services.

Executive Summary
Summary of BMI's key industry forecasts and trend analysis, covering ICT, fixed-line, mobile and internet markets, and headline news of key industry events from the latest quarter.

Market Overview
At-a-glance outlook of the structure, size and value of the industry, including an overview of key players and a snapshot of regional penetration rates for fixed-line, mobile and internet markets.

Business Environment Rankings
BMI provides a cross-border analysis of telecoms regulatory systems across regional markets, and their investor prospects, discussing the merits and downfalls of each country's business environment, and ranking them in order of competitiveness. The rankings take into account industry factors, such as Market Maturity, Growth Potential, Competitive Environment and Licensing Framework in addition to BMI's political and economic risk ratings.

BMI 5-Year Industry Forecast
Historic data series and 5-year forecasts to end-2012 for all key industry indicators (see list below), supported by explicit assumptions, plus analysis of key downside risks to the main forecast.

Fixed-Line Telephony - Telephone Lines ('000); Telephone Lines/100 Inhabitants;
Cellular Telephony - Phone Subscribers ('000); Mobile Phone Subscribers/ 100 Inhabitants; Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Fixed Line Subscribers;
Internet Markets - Internet Users ('000); Internet Users/100 Inhabitants; Broadband Internet Subscribers ('000); Broadband Internet Subscribers/100 Inhabitants;
Multimedia Markets - PCs ('000); PCs/100 Inhabitants; TV households ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers/100 inhabitants; Cable TV subscribers ('000s); Direct-to-Home Subscribers ('000s)
BMI 5-Year Macroeconomic Forecast
BMI forecasts for all headline macroeconomic indicators, including real GDP growth, inflation, fiscal balance, trade balance, current account and external debt.

Competitive Landscape & Rankings
Commentary on key operators highlighting ownership structures, latest available revenue figures, market share analysis and ARPU counts.

Company Profiles & SWOTS
Company profiles, including SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses, fully researched senior executives and contact details, business activity, leading products and services, and a record of all recent foreign direct investments and projects.

The Sector At A Glance

Key Insights On The Telecomunications sector of United Arab Emirates

The future of the UAE's fixed-line market is expected to be one of continued slow growth, at odds with our earlier expectations that the sector would begin to flatten out, and eventually dip. Annual growth has remained fairly consistent over the past few years, with 2004 experiencing growth of 4.6%, followed by 2005 growth of 3.5% and 4% in 2006, taking the total fixed-line subscriber base to 1.28mn users. Our confidence that the market will continue growing derives from the ban on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services by the telecoms regulatory body, and until such a time when use of VoIP is allowed, customers will have little alternative than to use services as provided by Etisalat and du. This forms the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority's (TRA) method of protecting its domestic companies and industry. Etisalat has sought to encourage usage in the international long distance (ILD) market by offering the corporate sector a 35% discount. We are now forecasting that fixed-line will grow at a consistent rate, in line with previous movements in the market, to achieve a penetration rate of 28.6% by the end of this year.

Further, the dominant operator is also seeking an aggressive strategy towards its broadband market position, with newcomer du currently trialling WiMAX. Etisalat set a precedent in the UAE with the announcement that it would reduce broadband tariffs - one of the highest in the region - and on a par with regional peers such as Bahrain's Batelco. The operator is hoping that it will be able to make an early entry into the triple-play arena, with a well-established base across the mobile and fixed-line sectors, and ahead of newcomer du. To this end, it has also been pursuing a fibre-optic cable project, and recently added a new agreement to its existing portfolio with a US$400mn joint venture linking the Middle East, India and Western Europe.

Even as the operator branches out into the triple-play arena, it is well aware of the saturated nature the mobile market presents, leading it to pursue an international expansionist strategy. Two likely takeover candidates are Algérie Télécom, which is also the sole owner of mobile operator Algeria's No.2 Mobilis and Kuwait's Wataniya (it failed in its objective here). Having said that, Etisalat will need to be vigilant over its domestic market - newcomer du is more than likely set to take subscribers away from the market, given its 100% penetration rate, with MNP facilitating the move. The 31-year absence of an alternative service provider is more than likely to have made customers keen to try out a new provider, and unless it is able to provide a good level of service and high network quality, Etisalat could soon find itself permanently losing market share. To this end, Etisalat has sought to satisfy UAE customers, who are technologically more savvy than other users in the region given the modern technological infrastructure they enjoy, leading with the announcement this quarter that the migration to Next Generation Networks (NGN) had begun, with around 10% of its existing network to be NGN-ready by YE07.