UAE cuts broadband Net prices by 40% but where is e-commerce?
Posted on 17 December 2009 with 3 comments from readers
By cutting broadband charges by up to 40 per cent Etisalat is giving a powerful boost to the growth of online media and e-commerce in the UAE. The unexpected price reduction brings its Internet charges into line with global standards, and removes them from the list of the most expensive in the world.
Most of Abu Dhabi’s 200,000 households, and around 60 per cent of the whole UAE is now connected to the Etisalat fibre-optic broadband network, with the balance to be completed by 2011. The local telecom duopoly means that rival du will almost certainly have to follow with lower broadband charges.
Lower charges
For access speeds of 30 megabits per second Etisalat has reduced its monthly fee from $190 to $135, on a par with similar services in Europe, although still not cheap. Etisalat has invested $1.4 billion in its new fibre-to-the-home network.
But there is clearly room for broadband prices to fall further. Increasingly the Internet is an important basic service like water or electricity, particularly for business, and this infrastructure is a key to future economic growth as a way of raising productivity.
In the same way that a road can open up a region to new commercial opportunities, so the Net is a powerful driver of modern business. Existing business operations can be greatly speeded up and improved, and entirely new business ventures become possible.
Developing an interactive website is now essential for most businesses as they offer an instantly available, updated sales brochure, free-of-charge anywhere in the world.
Broadband Internet makes the web an even more powerful tool with faster access to content and the ability to download video and hold free video conversations over Skype.
Business opportunity
More and more business is being done online, whether retail or wholesale, and the UAE has lagged far behind in e-commerce. Perhaps that is something that ought to be put right now. Even in a recession the Internet can pay big dividends.
Online secure payments and distribution though courier services like Aramex make e-commerce perfectly feasible in the emirates. In the early 2000s a lot of problems with online credit card payments ruined this market, but now is the time for retailers to venture into this profitable market again.
3 Comments posted by readers:
a successfull e-commerce business model really needs scale in terms of a target base.
maybe a first step to grow internet use could be for the goverment to rationalize and rewamp their webpages that sometimes look more like christmass trees.
“The unexpected price reduction brings its (Etisalat) Internet charges into line with global standards, and removes them from the list of the most expensive in the world”
A long, long way to go yet, I am afraid. In Japan, a 160 mbps service costs $60 per month – $5 a month more than a basic 30 mbps service. In the Netherlands its $107 for 120 mbps and $81 for 60 mbps.
This was a very small step forward. The basic internet speeds raging from 4-16 MBPS are still quite expensive and so is the Data package for mobile use.
http://etisalat.ae/index.jsp?lang=en&type=package¤tid=875059ecfb01a010VgnVCM1000003c05000a____&contentid=855d1755596a8110VgnVCM1000000c24a8c0RCRD&offer=Package&order=11