As per the top official of the company, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, popularly known as du, is confident that the infrastructure sharing deal with fellow telecom giant Etisalat will be rolled out by the first quarter of 2011.

According to reports citing Chief Commercial Officer Farid Faraidooni during GITEX Technology Week 2010, the company would expect to start the actual commercial launch of fixed services over a shared infrastructure by the first quarter of 2011. The company is at very advanced stages at finalizing the deal with Etisalat, under the umbrella of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, and hopefully this will be concluded at the end of the year and will go commercially by the first quarter of 2011 after testing and quality assurance procedures.

The company believes that this scheme will help its revenues, specifically in the fixed-line segment — as it will be able to further reach out to consumers in the UAE. This will allow Du to expand the footprint to the rest of the country. There will be a progressive rollout all over the UAE in a phased approach. Du is showcasing its latest offerings for the telecommunication market, which are one of the most advanced globally.

According to Farid Faraidooni, today the company offers the highest mobile broadband rate in the region, and du is only few telcos that has it worldwide. Du’s HSPDA+ mobile broadband technology can reach as high as 42.2Mbps — the highest by industry standards — and it covers more than 98 per cent of the UAE population. Du is always very keen to deploy the latest technology. They don’t [just] talk about it, they implement it.

However, Faraidooni pointed out, the limitation on this high-end technology is that not many devices in the market are able to support this. According to him, the company hopes these devices that can support the high broadband rate will be available in the market soon. Du will continue to invest in the mobile network and enhance the broadband experience.

Faraidooni also added that Du is currently doing trials with several vendors for the Long-Term Evolution network — which is also known as 4G — but did not give further details.

Considering the recent US$207 million export credit facility du received to fund its expansion, most of this amount will go to investments in its mobile network, especially in 3G.

On the fixed-line segment, Du currently offers the latest and most advanced IPTV set up, which includes a very interactive online TV guide, and the ability to pause and rewind live TV programmes.

GITEX also provided the opportunity for du to launch its new Anayou Website, which is a portal for the social community to interact just like other popular social networks. It also allows users to send SMS, play games, store content and much more.