science

Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates

Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates rather than just read about it. In short: Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is under the control and supervision of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority which was established under UAE Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003. From 1976 to 2006 the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) was the sole telephone and telecommunications provider for the UAE.

Key takeaways

Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is under the control and supervision of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority which was established under UAE Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003. From 1976 to 2006 the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) was the sole telephone and telecommunications provider for the UAE. And while there were exceptions for free zones and modern housing developments, for the majority of the UAE, Etisalat held a monopoly on business and personal telecommunications services. In February 2006, this monopoly became a duopoly when a new telephone company and Internet service provider (ISP), du, was established to offer mobile services across the UAE and Internet and TV services to some free zone areas. However, due to geographical distribution of service areas, the companies do not compete for customers and thus effectively operate as monopolies. Earlier du provided triple play services to free zone areas under the name Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), which is still its legal name.

Telephones Land lines: 1.825 million, 61st in the world (2011) Mobile cellular: 17.943 million, 66th in the world (2011) System: modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital network with rapidly growing use of mobile-cellular telephones; key centers are Abu Dhabi and Dubai Domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber optic and coaxial cable International: linked to the international submarine cable FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe); landing point for both the SEA-ME-WE-3 and SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable networks; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat; tropospheric scatter to Bahrain; microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia Country code: 971

Radio and television Except for the many organizations now operating in Dubai's Media Free Zone, most TV and radio stations remain government-owned; widespread use of satellite dishes provides access to pan-Arab and other international broadcasts (2007) Radio has been around for more than 60 years in the UAE. Prior to the UAE's formation, the British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBC) had a local FM radio studio here. It ran syndicated entertainment programmes and read news about the command to it garrisons stationed in the then Trucial States. In the late 1970s, UAE Radio started independent services. Channel 4 was the first commercial radio station, followed by Emirates Media Radio and the Arab Media Group. As of February 2014, independent radio stations in the UAE include 7 each in English and Hindi, 12 in Arabic, 4 Malayalam, and one each in Tamil, Tagalog, Russian and Persian.

Television broadcast stations: 72 free-to-air channels (2011) 33% IPTV penetration (estimated, 2011) Televisions: 743,133 (est. 2004), 310,000 (1997)

Internet Penetration: 9,890,400 or 100% of the population (2020) Service Providers (ISPs): 2, Etisalat and du (2008) Hosts: 337,804 (2012) Top-level domain: .ae (see also: .ae Domain Administration)

Internet censorship

According to Freedom House, Internet in the United Arab Emirates is significantly restricted: online censorship is rampant, the Emirati government surveils online activists and journalists and uses increasingly sophisticated technology to spread disinformation that advances pro-UAE domestic and international narratives on social media, and social media users in the UAE are arrested and fined for online posts. The government bans websites that criticize it, as well as websites with pornographic films and those perceived as anti-Islamic or anti-government/anti-police. The United Arab Emirates censors the Internet using Secure Computing's solution. The country's ISPs Etisalat and du (telco) ban pornography, politically sensitive material and anything against the perceived moral values of the UAE. All or most VoIP services are blocked. Both WhatsApp and Snapchat calling functions were also blocked in the UAE, to comply with VoIP regulations. TRA instructs Etisalat and du to block parts of Wikipedia, all VoIP services such as Skype and SIP based services and some social networking services like hi5, Friendster, and all dating sites like Yahoo! Personals and Match.com. A 2005 study, before du was established, also showed Etisalat sometimes block websites relating to the Baháʼí Faith. A common method of circumventing internet censorship is by using VPN services. In March 2015, the Dubai Police declared the usage of VPN (virtual private network) illegal, saying that "tampering with the internet is a crime". Although action may not be taken against an individual for simply using a VPN, the usage of VPN combined with other illegal acts would lead to additional charges.

In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the government of UAE introduced a partial relaxation of the ban on VoIP services to ease communication during the lockdown. Popular instant messaging applications that remained blocked despite the removal of the ban on VoIP services included WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Skype. The selective relaxation of the ban narrowed down the user’s choice to premium (paid) services, owned by state-run telecommunication firms.

Broadcast media censorship On 16 November 2007, Tecom stopped broadcast of two major Pakistani satellite news channels, uplinked from Dubai Media City, which were initially marketed by Tecom under the tagline "Freedom to Create". The Dubai government ordered Tecom to shut down the popular independent Pakistani news channels Geo News and ARY One World on the demand of Pakistan's military regime led by General Pervez Musharraf. This was implemented by du Samacom, disabling their SDI and ASI streams. Later policymakers in Dubai permitted these channels to air their entertainment programs, but news, current affairs and political analysis were forbidden. Although subsequently the conditions were removed, marked differences have since been observed in their coverage. This incident has had a serious impact on all organizations in the media city, with Geo TV and ARY OneWorld considering relocation.

See also Telephone numbers in the United Arab Emirates

References

External links Etisalat website du website Cygnus Telecom - Satellite Services website Internet Usage in Middle East UAE Mobile App Statistics

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates

In research: Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet in the United Arab Emirates, Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates in simple terms?

Why does Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates.