| Type | Private (DFM: DU) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
| Key people | Osman Sultan CEO |
| Products | TV service, GSM service, Broadband Internet Service |
| Revenue | AED 4 Billion[1] |
| Employees | 2,000 |
| Website | www.du.ae |
The Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) is a telecommunications company in the United Arab Emirates. Although Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company is its legal name, it was commercially rebranded as du in February 2006.[2][3] The company, has invested AED 1.7 billion in 2011 and has a total of 4,993,600 active mobile subscribers, 623,7000 fixed-line telephony subscribers and 127,000 broadband internet subscribers. The company has no plans to expand beyond its home market in the U.A.E.[4]
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EITC is 40 percent owned by the UAE federal government, 20% by Mubadala Development Company, 20% by TECOM Investments and 20% by public shareholders. It is listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and trades under the name du.
du offers fixed and mobile telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services to individuals, homes and businesses, and carrier services for businesses.
On February 11, 2007, du launched its own mobile service with call tariffs almost identical to those of Etisalat, thus eliminating any possibility of price competition between the two providers. Subscribers to du mobile services can be identified by the dialing prefix 055.
The UAE telecom market is highly restricted, with both major players being largely government owned.[5] There is little real competition, with the choice of provider generally determined by geographic location. du typically has a monopoly on freezones, while Etisalat has a monopoly elsewhere. As a result, contrary to the UAE's aspirations to be a major global IT hub, broadband internet provision in the UAE is among the slowest and most expensive in the world, with a current maximum available speed of 24 Mbit/s.
In March 2008, Du began selectively blocking VOIP traffic, preventing customers from using the computer-to-phone functionality of VOIP systems. The blocking is justified on the grounds that computer-to-phone VOIP services are illegal under UAE telecom law. Both of the telecoms providers in the UAE derive a large proportion of their income from expatriates making expensive international calls to their home countries.
However, a specific exemption in the telecom law permits the use of VOIP for computer-to-computer calls, and so it is still possible to access VOIP websites, download VOIP software, set up accounts and use the software to make computer-to-computer calls, both audio and video. If a computer-to-phone call is attempted, it will typically fail to connect unless a VPN is used (see below).
On April 14, 2008, du started instituting the same widespread censorship of the web that has been practised by Etisalat for some years. Any attempt to access content deemed 'inappropriate' by the UAE censor results in a 'blocked' page. As well as pornography, blocking includes blogs, forums and news articles that are critical of the UAE, as well as a proportion of sites that seem to be accidentally blocked as they have no obviously controversial content.