du (company)

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co. (du)
شركة الإمارات للاتصالات المتكاملة «دو»‎
Public company
Traded as DFM: du
Industry Telecommunications
Founded 2005 (2005)
Headquarters Al-Salam Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
(Head office)
Area served
 United Arab Emirates
Key people
 Ahmad Bin Byat (Chairman)
Osman Sultan (CEO)
Products Fixed line and mobile telephony, Internet services, digital television
Revenue Increase US$3.36 billion (2015)
Decrease US$530 million (2015)
Number of employees
 2,000
Subsidiaries EITC Investment Holdings Limited
Website www.du.ae

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Arabic: شركة الإمارات للاتصالات المتكاملة‎), commercially rebranded as du in February 2007, is one of the two telecom operators in the United Arab Emirates (the other one being Etisalat). du offers fixed line, mobile telephony, internet and digital television services across the United Arab Emirates.

History

Du’s official name is Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC). It was commercially branded as du in February 2007. The company had 4.5 million subscribers as of the end of March 2011. The company launched mobile telecommunication services in February 2007 across the UAE and it reported its 2008 full year results in February, revealing it had added 1.88 million mobile customers over the 12 months. Revenue of $1.08bn was 157% up on the previous year. Before the launch of services in 2006, shareholders offered 20% of their shares in an IPO. Emirates Bank and Emirates Financial services managed the share sale.

Ownership

EITC is 39.50% owned by Emirates Investment Authority (EIA), 20.08% by Mubadala Development Company, 20% by Emirates Communications & Technology Company LLC (ECT) and 20.92% by public shareholders.It is listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and trades under the name du.

Sales & expansion

In 2012 du achieved like for like revenues of AED 10.16 billion (reported revenue AED 9.8 billion), an increase of 14.71% on 2011. The company acquired 1,241,251 net new mobile customers and they estimate overall market share as 48.7% and value share as 32.5% in their Consolidated Financial Statements for 2012..

Mobile data revenue increased by 74% on 2011 taking overall data revenues to AED 1.76 billion for 2012, an increase from 2011 data revenues at AED 1.01 billion.

The company’s EBITDA growth for the 2012 was AED 3.99 billion, 37.10%, representing an EBITDA margin of 39.37% for 2012. Net profit before royalty grew by 55.81% to reach AED 2.82 billion in 2012. The Federal Government confirmed the royalty charge for 2012 at 5% of revenue and 17.5% of profit, resulting in net profit after royalty of AED 1.98 billion.

Financial results

Total revenue announced in du’s annual report 2012 in AED millions is:

20082009201020112012
2,9515,3397,0748,855 (Gross); 8,539 (Net)10,157 (Gross); 9,842 (Net)

[1]

2012 revenue split (FY) was as follows:

Telephony - mobileTelephony - fixedBroadcastingWholesale
78.1%16%1.7%4.3%

[1]

Services & products

Du offers mobile and fixed telephony, broadband connectivity and IPTV services to individuals, homes and businesses. The company also provide carrier services for businesses and satellite up/downlink services for TV broadcasters. Subscribers to du mobile services can be identified by the dialing prefix 055 and 052.

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.

Products and services promoted by du include [du Live!, Pay As You Go prepaid plan with its WoW recharge card, Emirati Plan, du TV+, the TV/Internet dual-play package Talk and Surf and the TV/Internet/Landline triple-play package Talk, Surf and Watch. Among du's services and campaigns launch were its Number Booking Campaign for both individuals and businesses, Pay by the Second billing system, Mobile TV, and the prepaid plan’s recharge card 'WoW', which offers customers the choice between 'more credit', 'more time' and now the 'more international' recharge option with additional credit on international calls).du also has an online service portal SelfCare for bill payment and managing subscriptions for its customers.

For businesses, services include Closed Business User Group free calling, and preferred International Destinations. du Broadcast Services division brings scalable media technology platforms and telecommunication solutions to the broadcast community through its teleport (Samacom) and Master Control Room (MCR) facilities.

In Feb 2015, du started offering VoLTE through its 4G LTE network.

Network

Radio Frequency Summary

Radio Frequency Summary
Frequency Protocol Band Class Channel Width
900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G 9.4 MHz
2100 MHz UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSPA+ 1 3G 10 MHz
1800 MHz LTE/LTE-Advanced 3 4G 20 MHz
800 MHz LTE/LTE-Advanced 20 4G 15 MHz

LTE

Du first launched LTE in 2012 on the FDD-LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz) frequency, in August 2014 it was then announced that du had installed and successfully tested VoLTE over its network.

In July 2014, du launched Cat. 6 LTE-Advanced with carrier aggregation and 4x4 MIMO combining 20 MHz of Band 3 (1800 MHz) and 15 MHz of Band 20 (800 MHz).[2]

Shops

The total number of du stores in the UAE is 56[3] in May 2013, up from 44 in March 2012.[4] In addition, du offers its products and services at more than 3000 authorised dealers in the UAE[5] and through its online shop, accessible at http://shop.du.ae.

Corporate governance

Emiratisation in the company

du currently has an overall employee Emiratisation level of 31%, with 41% of hired UAE Nationals in executive positions. The telecom company has an established Emiratisation scheme, Masar, and regularly participates in career fairs across the UAE to capture the attention of young Emiratis. [6]

In 2012, du doubled the number of Emirati staff in their fully Emirati-managed and operated Fujairah-based UAE National Call Centre up to 120 employees, 90% of which are females.[7] Also in 2012, 146 Emiratis have successfully graduated from their 18-month Masar Graduate Trainee programme. [6]

Corporate Governance & CSR

du has been involved in several corporate governance initiatives in the UAE, Middle East and the USA, promoting best practice through workshops, sponsorships and many more initiatives. Included among these is the sponsorship of the Abu Dhabi Corporate Governance Conference, and of the Hawkamah-OECD 6th annual regional corporate governance conference. Du has also applied systematic compliance, embedded within the Corporate Governance system of the company, with increased environmental initiatives following energy savings directives, as directed by Ahmad Bin Byat, Chairman of Du.[8]

Further efforts to improve corporate governance include training and development, such as DLA Piper workshop on Corporate Governance, Du's Sustainable Development Report - Materiality Session Briefing and quarterly industry trends.[9]

Du has been ranked first in the S&P/Hawkamah Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) Index 2011. The ranking comes as a result of the telecommunications company's sustained efforts to enhancing corporate governance standards within the company and community, which have boosted Du up from last year's ranking to achieve the position as a leader and implementer of best practice.[10]

Entertainment & Sponsorships

du Live!

du Live! is the entertainment platform for du, and its slogan is ‘bringing you the best in live entertainment’. Through the du Live! platform, du sponsors concerts and live events in the UAE, both in du Arena, du Forum and other venues. Entertainment sponsorship under the du Live! umbrella included music concerts and festival such as the annual du World Music Festival, which hosted names like Gipsy Kings, Sonu Nigam, Natalie Cole, Sting, Andrea Bocelli among others.

As part of the Skywards Dubai International Jazz Festival 2011, du was also the official sponsor for the year’s du Jazz Garden, which took place from 8 to 15 February. The Jazz Festival in Dubai featured British and International bands, in addition to supporting the main Jazz Festival from 16 to 18 February 2011.[11]

du Arena

The crowd at Bocelli's Concert in du Arena, Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2013
The crowd at Bocelli's concert at du Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE sponsored by du's entertainment platform du Live!

The du Arena is an open-air venue on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi with a standing capacity for 25,000 people, which was called Yas Arena before the rebranding in May 2012 following a 4-year deal between ‘’du’’ and the Flash Entertainment, but no value for the deal was announced publicly.[12] The deal marks the Middle East’s first naming rights partnership.[13]

The rebranding preceded the first Madonna concert, part of her MDNA tour, in the Arab region on 3 and 4 June 2012. du and Think Flash revamped the venue for Madonna’s concert, including building up a new 23m x 54m stage and developing a complex pyrotechnic and lighting system. Grass has been relaid, gravel removed, tarmac walkways laid down throughout the arena and a central public plaza area featuring merchandise, retail and entertainment has been installed.[14]

The du Arena has hosted many international musicians under the telecom’s entertainment platform du Live! in addition to Madonna, including Eric Clapton, Kylie Minogue, Nickelback, Eminem, Andrea Bocelli, Metallica, Kanye West, Linkin Park, Sting, Creamfields dance music festival featuring DJs such as Tiesto, David Guetta and Armin Van Buuren.[15] Furthermore, the du Arena has also been the venue for the Middle East's first KCON event featuring various K-pop artists such as Bangtan Boys, Taeyeon of Girls' Generation, Cho Kyuhyun of Super Junior, Monsta X, Ailee, SS301, and Spica last March 25, 2016.[16]

du Forum

The du Forum is an indoor live entertainment venue on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi also part of the sponsorship deal that du signed to get the naming and branding rights of the du Arena. The indoor venue hosts live performances and music events, and has hosted Chris Tucker, and The Jacksons in their Unity World Tour.[17] du has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with Abu Dhabi’s Flash Entertainment, which had the emirate’s concert venue Yas Arena rebranded to du Arena, and also the Flash Forum renamed to du Forum.[13]

The du World Music Festival

The du World Music Festival has been organized annually by du Live! and their partners since 2011. The first du World Music Festival took place at the Burj Khalifa Steps in Downtown Dubai and The Walk in JBR between 26 February to 25 March 2011, with performances by top-class artists from around the world such as Tamer Hosny, Mona Amarcha, Janet Kapuya, Mashrou’ Leila, Amit Chatterjee Alliance, Spongecola, Wust el Balad.

The second du World Music Festival took place also at the DownTown Burj Khalifa Steps, took place between 7–16 March 2012. Free and ticketed events included performances by Gabrielle, The Gipsy Kings, Amr Diab, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Stanley Clarke, Salif Keita, Sarah Geronimo, George Benson.

The third du World Music Festival took place between 22 March 2013 - 6 April 2013, and included famous names as Andrea Bocelli, Natalie Cole, Guns N’ Roses, Kadim Al Sahir, Amr Diab, Eraserheads, Sonu Nigam, Train, Frank Gambale, Papon among others. This edition included performances at the du Arena in Abu Dhabi, the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre in Dubai, and in Ras Al Khaimah.

Senior management

In its operation period since 2006, du had had just one Chief Executive, Osman Sultan. Sultan was previously CEO at Orascom’s MobiNil operations in Egypt.[18]

Awards and honors

Certification awards for 2012

  • ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification accredited as a sign of excellence in health, safety and environmentally-friendly practices[19]
  • TL9000 certification for Network Development Department; the first company in the Middle East to be awarded this certification[20]
  • du Retail Shop at Fujairah City Centre was awarded the Platinum “LEED® Green Building Certification”; the highest LEED ranking possible[21]

Criticism

The UAE telecom market is highly restricted, with both major players being largely government owned.[22] 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.

Censorship

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 which includes pornography, inappropriate blogs, forums and news articles that are critical of the UAE.

Users who tried to access a blocked web page were initially redirected to du's first block page. As rendered in the Opera web browser
The second version of du's block page, as rendered by the Mozilla Firefox web browser

DNS resolvers

  • DNS server 1: 94.200.200.200
  • DNS server 2: 91.74.74.74

See also

References

  1. 1 2 du's Annual Report 2012.
  2. ↑ S, Murtaza (Jun 5, 2017). "Evolution to LTE Report (GSACOM)" (PDF). GSACom.
  3. ↑ "UAE telco du to open new outlets in Dubai". arabianbusiness.com.
  4. ↑ "du comes closer to its customers: Opens 44th du Shop in The Dubai Mall". Archived from the original on June 16, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  5. ↑ "404-page-not-found". www.du.ae.
  6. 1 2 Annual Report 2012, p. 41.
  7. ↑ Annual Report 2012, p. 45.
  8. ↑ "Du tops S&P/Hawkamah Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Index 2011 as MENA's most compliant company". Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ "du reiterates commitment to corporate governance in the region". highbeam.com. 3 April 2011.
  10. ↑ "404-page-not-found". www.du.ae.
  11. ↑ http://www.bi-me.com/main.phpid=51258&t=1%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  12. ↑ "Yas Arena rebrands after deal with du". thenational.ae.
  13. 1 2 "Abu Dhabi's Yas Arena rebranded du Arena". arabianbusiness.com.
  14. ↑ "Du Arena gets revamp for Madonna concerts". arabianbusiness.com.
  15. ↑ "du Live!". Du.ae. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
  16. ↑ "From Korea, with love: Our guide to KCON 2016 in Abu Dhabi". thenational.ae.
  17. ↑ "du Forum". www.thecapitallist.ae.
  18. ↑ "Osman Sultan confirmed as CEO of second UAE operator". arabianbusiness.com.
  19. ↑ http://teletekwire.com/?p=11086%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  20. ↑ http://www.ameinfo.com/du-middle-east-telecom-provider-awarded-303829%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  21. ↑ http://www.telecomreview.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=505:du-retail-shop-awarded-leed-green-building-certification-&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=62 Archived 2013-06-15 at Archive.is
  22. ↑ "UAE telecom market grows with competition". 7 December 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
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