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Native name | هيئة تنظيم الاتصالات والحكومة الرقمية |
|---|---|
| Type | Government agency |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people |
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| Website | www.tdra.gov.ae |
Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) is the federal telecommunications regulatory agency of the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) was established in 2003 [1] to regulate the Information Communications and Telecommunications (ICT) sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to ensure sustainability, competitiveness and transparency among the service providers [2] , customers and shareholders. The TDRA is a regulatory body with more than 1000 employees, it oversees the telecom sector and the licensees in the UAE in accordance with the Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003 and its Executive Order, and implements the directives of the Board of Directors.[ citation needed ] The TDRA is an independent body and its duties include ensuring telecom services are available to all provinces of the country, assuring that the licensed operators fully follow established rules and regulations and developing telecom sector.
The TDRA has three offices, the headquarters, Al Khalidiyah office in Abu Dhabi, and a Dubai office. Through these offices, the TDRA tries to ensure adequacy in the ICT service across the UAE, guaranteeing that all the service providers are committed to their license obligations. The TDRA is responsible for representing the country in regional and international forums and conferences, particularly at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Developing the regulatory ICT framework, issuing the required regulations and resolving any disputes that may arise among the participants in the UAE ICT market are central tenets for the TDRA. Currently the TDRA includes 200 employees working in eight departments; Regulatory Affairs, Legal Affairs, Spectrum and International Affairs, Support Service Affairs, Finance Affairs, Corporate Communications Affairs, Technology Development Affairs and Licensing and E-commerce Affairs, the TDRA is managing all the aspects of the ICT sector in the United Arab Emirates. [3]
Since the inception of the TDRA, the United Arab Emirates telecommunications infrastructure has become more sophisticated. The first footprint was enabling competition in the market by licensing the second telecom operator “Du” [4] besides Etisalat, the first UAE telecom operator. This step resulted enhanced communications services and offered users more options and choices. However in order to increase profits for government licensed telecommunications companies the TDRA has taken down several free to use services such as Skype and Discord. [5] The TDRA is able to do this anti-consumer practice due to the oligopoly of ISPs (Internet service providers) and the lack of net neutrality in the country. [6]
The TDRA has also created the string(DotEmarat) [7] as the official Arabic top level domain for the UAE. With the approval of ICANN, the (DotEmarat) was endorsed by the UAE Ministerial Council for Services as the definitive and representative domain name of the United Arab Emirates on the World Wide Web for its native language script.
The eighteenth Plenipotentiary Conference (Guadalajara 2010) witnessed the second consecutive UAE election to membership in the ITU Council.
The Global Technology Report issued by the World Economic Forum, ranked the UAE first in the Middle East and North Africa, moving ahead in the ranking by four positions to 23rd globally, and is a clear indication of the success of the UAE Government's efforts aimed at building a knowledge-based economy that is flexible and varied with a focus on innovation and excellence.
In January 2010, the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, in keeping with one of its core missions as manifested in safeguarding consumer rights and monitoring competition within the local telecommunications market, announced telecommunications' "Competition Framework". [8] The "Framework", the first to be developed by TDRA, provides a detailed outline benefiting telecommunications consumers by promoting and protecting competition through deterring Licensees from engaging in activities that may impede competition in the UAE telecommunications sector.
The Authority is eager to apply the latest ICT technologies within its operations; a new spectrum management system was launched by the TDRA in the UAE; the new system is the first of its kind in the Middle East and the second most up-to-date and powerful in the world in the area of spectrum management. The system includes 13 stations, which are capable to cover the UAE spectrum efficiently.
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users with 1179.49 million subscribers as on 31 January 2021. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by mega telecom operators and hyper-competition among them. India has the world's second-largest Internet user-base with 747.41 million broadband internet subscribers in the country.
Telecommunications in Pakistan describes the overall environment for the mobile telecommunications, telephone, and Internet markets in Pakistan.
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Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is under the control and supervision of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) which was established under UAE Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003. From 1976 to 2006 the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) was the sole telephone and telecommunications provider for the UAE. And while there were exceptions for free zones and modern housing developments, for the majority of the UAE, Etisalat held a monopoly on business and personal telecommunications services. In February 2006, this monopoly became a duopoly when a new telephone company and Internet service provider (ISP), du, was established to offer mobile services across the UAE and Internet and TV services to some free zone areas. However, due to geographical distribution of service areas, the companies do not compete for customers and thus effectively operate as monopolies. Earlier du provided triple play services to free zone areas under the name Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), which is still its legal name.
Emirates Telecommunication Group Company PJSC, branded trade name Etisalat, is a multinational Emirati based telecommunications services provider, currently operating in 15 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. As of February 2014, Etisalat is the 14th largest mobile network operator in the world, with a total customer base of more than 167 million. It is the only net provider in UAE. Etisalat was named the most powerful company in the United Arab Emirates by Forbes Middle East in 2012.
.ae is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United Arab Emirates. It is administered by .aeDA which is part of the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
Ahmad Abdullah Juma Bin Byat is an Emirati firmly established in the UAE’s business environment, holding directorial positions in several prominent Dubai organisations.
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Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, commercially rebranded as du February 2007, is one of the two telecom operators in the United Arab Emirates. du offers fixed line, mobile telephony, internet and digital television services across the United Arab Emirates. It has a sister concern named Edara established in 2018. Edara is a subsidiary of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) commercially branded as Telco Operations.
Use of the Internet in Qatar has grown rapidly and is now widespread, but Internet access is also heavily filtered.
The Internet in Afghanistan was introduced in 2002 after the Karzai administration took office in Kabul. It was banned prior to 2002 because the previous Taliban government believed that it broadcast obscene, immoral, and anti-Islamic material, and because the few internet users at the time could not be easily monitored as they obtained their telephone lines from neighboring Pakistan.
Following its independence from British occupation in 1971, the United Arab Emirates’ mass media landscape had already started some of its media sectors and continued to develop steadily. Since then, much of the UAE's media outlets fall under government-owned umbrella groups as well as regulation by the National Media Council and its extensions. The major types of UAE media are print press, radio, television, internet and social media.
The Indian Telecommunications Service, widely known as ITS, and earlier known as 'Telegraph Engineering Service Class I' is a Central Civil Service (gazetted)under Group 'A' of the executive branch of the Government of India. The appointment to this service is done through Combined Engineering Services Exam held every year by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) of India. The service was created to meet the technical and managerial functions of the government in areas related to telecommunications.The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) had been managed, both technically and administratively, for years by this permanent cadre of civil servants called the Indian Telecom Service (ITS).
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The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is the government body responsible for information and communications technology (ICT) issues in the Arab Republic of Egypt. Established in 1999, MCIT is responsible for the planning, implementation and operation of government ICT plans and strategies. MCIT is led by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, who is nominated by the Prime Minister and is a member of the cabinet. The current ICT Minister is Amr Talaat who assumed the position on 14 June 2018. MCIT is headquartered in Smart Village Egypt, in 6th of October, Giza Governorate, in the Cairo metropolitan area.
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The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, commonly known as NTRA, is the Egypt government-approved regulatory and competition authority that was established in accordance of the Egyptian telecommunication regulation law No. 10/ 2003 as the national authority equipped to regulate and administer the telecommunications region. Regulating the competition environment between the operators inside the industry according to the Egyptian constitution was a huge mandatory case after the huge rate of telecommunication technology growth, as well as ensuring the availability of qualitative and green telecommunications services.
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