Etisalat has witnessed at 200 percent growth in roaming traffic in 2010, the leading mobile operator in the Middle East and North Africa announced on Monday. This includes traffic from Etisalat's United Arab Emirates customers, as well as its international clientele. The observation was made concurrently at both the Pacific Telecoms Council (PTC) in Hawaii and at Roaming Congress MENA 2011, which Etisalat is hosting this week in Dubai. Ali Amiri, Etisalat's Executive Vice President, Carrier and Wholesale, suggested the design of a new roaming strategy. “We are witnessing a trend in roaming, and in particular data roaming, which is undergoing exponential growth. We have seen our data roaming traffic increase more than 200% last year,” he said, adding, “More people are roaming more often and they are accessing more services through increasing numbers of specialist devices. These are trends that will continue for years to come and as such, we see no reason for any slowing in the growth of roaming traffic.” Abdulraheem Aqeel, Vice President, Service Delivery Management, Carrier and Wholesale Services, Etisalat, gave a keynote speech at the Roaming Congress in which he explained the technology trends driving roaming growth. Aqeel attributed the growth to four aspects: the ability of mobile operators to act as Internet Service Providers, the increase of consumers using the same device for personal and professional matters, the increasing in web browsing, and the implementation of new services, such as location-based applications. “Etisalat provides a Roaming Replicator service which effectively provides access to more than 600 networks worldwide through a single connection to many operators across the Middle East, Africa and Asia region. This has proven to be an efficient method of rolling out services as our group expands into new countries and provides a competitive advantage in many of our emerging markets. Our roaming hub is one of the key services from our Smart Hub in the UAE,” Abdulraheem concluded. BM
