Arab Mobile Communication Studies

Etisalat yesterday announced its mobile phone subscribers crossed the four million mark, giving it a customer base of 95 per cent of the country's 4.2 million population.

95% of the 4.2million UAE residents own mobile phones.

"A ratio of 19:20 represents one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world and confirms Etisalat's success in finding a winning formula to satisfy its customers across the board," said Mohammad Hassan Omran, chief executive of Etisalat.

"Other countries may have approached a similar level but it is unlikely that any of them had a single telecom operator. Etisalat is probably the only single operator in one country with such an achievement," he said.

This is a noteworthy achievement and confirms the corporation is able to deliver what the customer wants, he said.

The corporation is to launch Next Generation Networks to join its cutting edge services such as 3G, with others including missed call notification, Tarji, GPRS roaming and Najm, Etisalat's first post-paid calling package.

Etisalat reported net profits of Dh3.4 billion for 2004 on the back of revenues totalling Dh10.4 billion.