UAE telcos are VoIP ready

With claims that VoIP services could soon be made available to customers in the UAE, telecom operators du and Etisalat both state that they are ready to rollout the technology to customers as soon as TRA makes a final decision.

Mohamed Al Ghanim, director general of TRA, yesterday confirmed that a framework was currently under development for VoIP providers.

In 2006, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said it would allow internet telephony through licensed operators du and Etisalat, but only for local calls within the UAE.

UAE customers have long been waiting to take advantage of VoIP to place international calls across the internet at a reasonable cost.

Earlier this year, Etisalat stated that it’s ready to offer VoIP services and du has now confirmed the same to itp.net. “Since we already offer voice, video and data services over IP to all our customers who use du fixed and home services, we have the entire necessary infrastructure in place and will be able to provide VOIP services within the timeframe stipulated by the TRA,” commented Farid Faraidooni, EVP Commercial, du

“It is too early to be talking about the benefits to our customers as we have not yet received any formal instructions from the TRA regarding this and so naturally cannot talk about specifics at this stage,” Faraidooni added.