• Home

Telephone calls will be cheaper from next year

ABU DHABI — Telephone calls will be less expensive in the country from next year as the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has instructed the country's two telecommunication companies — Etisalat and du to provide Carrier Pre-Selection Service (CPS), in fixed line.

This move will increase competition in the UAE telecom sector, reduce prices, and enable consumers in the UAE to freely choose their provider of national and international fixed line call services.

The TRA issued directive No. (2) of 2008 to du, and directive No. (3) of 2008 to Etisalat, to make network adaptations.

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, director-general, said that since 2007, many consumers in the UAE were able to choose their provider of national and international fixed line calls via a technology called Carrier Selection Service (CS), which has some technical limitations. As a consequence, it prevented competition from reaching 100 per cent of the population of the UAE.

After the introduction of limited competition, retail prices for fixed network international calls have decreased between 35 per cent and 80 per cent for those customers, who took advantage of such services.

He expected to see further price reduction when competition is available via CPS throughout the UAE.

The TRA, he said, aims to allow consumers freedom of choice and increase competition in order to bring the price down.

• UAE