Jul 10
19
Etisalat and the growth of Telecommunications
A healthy market is where there is healthy competition and in the Telecommunications market in the UAE there is almost no competition. While there is Du to compete with the top market shareholder etisalat it has a long way to go. On the other hand it’s like a brother/sister competition and a win win situation with less advantage for the end user.
The UAEnic that is .ae has been handled by Etisalat since its very beginning but recently there are many expensive registrars that have the service available. Khaleej Times has an interesting story announcing the Dhs 3.8 Billion/ $1 Billion profit posted by eisalat in the first half of the year. Interesting news indeed in a slow economy where everyone is crying but the telecommunication sector in the UAE. The residents are really happy to see the market bouncing back but its all at the cost of consumers. How does a service industry make such huge postings. No competition and low quality customer support is where the profits are bagged from.
Just an example for low Quality customer care is the registration of the .ae domain. UAEnic which is operated by Etisalat has no means of registering or even renewing a domain online, leave alone the extras such as DNS services and so on. A company that’s boasts to be high tech and has all the resources of the nation lacks in providing such simple services to the consumer. One has to go to the etisalat office if a simple DNS setting needs to be done rather then simply doing it 24/7 from the comfort of his chair.
Talk about customer care and one would have to wait for no less then 15 to 20 minutes to get a call connected to the customer support, if you are talking about the internet. Boasting a high tech society in the UAE the costs of broadband and dial-up services are costlier then some of the under developed countries in the world with very less infrastructure.
Mobile charges are no where compared to the prices in countries like India and Pakistan while the etisalat boasts of millions of subscribers. The reason behind this might be the ratio of people having disposable incomes in the UAE being higher then that of the sub-continent.
A lesser competitive atmosphere in any niche can be suicidal for the industry itself where the capitalists thrive on high profit yields and a consumer focused market if far from being sighted. The growth is merely for the profit building of the company rather then being consumer focused which is a much more win-win situation then the prior. Low quality customer support with expensive services would surely bag good returns in term of profits and since there is no choice for the consumer but to survive the monopolistic trend of the market sharks they cannot do anything. Healthy competition is not only good for the consumer but is necessary for the growth of the economy and the niche itself.
