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Etisalat unit signs accord with three GSM operators

The Emirates Data Clearing House (EDCH), a business subsidiary of the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, Etisalat, will host on the 4th and 5th of October its two-day Annual User Group Meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dubai.

EDCH's clients, telecom operators from all over the world including Africa, Asia, Europe and the AGCC, will come to the UAE to attend the event.

The meeting coincides with a series of major announcements reconfirm the leading position of Emirates Data Clearing House (EDCH) as an Etisalat company with world standard expertise in GSM roaming clearing. Three new contracts were signed with MTC Vodafone and Wataniya Telecom in Kuwait, and with MTC Vodafone in Bahrain. The agreements, which were announced for the first time yesterday, were signed with these major operators in the summer of 2003. EDCH will make other significant announcements with African and Asian renowned operators very shortly.

Under the agreements, EDCH will provide a single point of support in Data and Financial Clearing for Kuwaiti and Bahraini mobile operators to facilitate their roaming services for better utilisation of available resources and improved profitability.

These new agreements bring EDCH's share of the Middle Eastern and African markets to 70 per cent. It also nearly doubles their international market share, which is rapidly approaching a double-digit percentage. EDCH now handles more than 1.5 million roaming call records per day, up from 350,000 only two years ago.

"These agreements cement EDCH's position as a major Clearing House more than capable of competing on an international level," commented Ahmed Almehyas, Manager, Emirates Data Clearing House.

"Bahraini and Kuwaiti operators, with whom we contracted, are well established operators which will generate immediate revenue. We have taken these contracts from one of the biggest Clearing Houses in the world." EDCH has doubled its client list in the last 12-18 months because GSM operators know they can expect the highest standards of service from the UAE-based company. Plans are in place to expand the marketing team at EDCH with a view to a major push into European markets, which are currently dominated by two or three major Clearing Houses.

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