AREGNET Price Benchmarking Study 2012 UAE Ranking Among GCC Countries

Page Table of Contents 2 Page Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………….…3 Summary of overall results from the AREGNET study…………………………………………….….……...4 TRA Index ……………..………………………………………………………………………………….……...5 PSTN Tariffs baskets ………………………………………………………………………………………….…6 Mobile Tariffs baskets ……………………………………………………………………………………………12 Fixed Broadband Tariffs baskets ………………………………………………………………………….……17 Mobile Broadband Tariffs baskets ………………………………………………………………………...……23 Leased line Tariffs baskets …………………………………………………………………………………...…28 Annexes Annex 1: Table of Results……………………………………………………………………………………….34 Annex 2: PSTN baskets Methodology…………………………………………………………………………35 Annex 3: Mobile baskets Methodology……………………………………………………………………..….36 Annex 4: Fixed Broadband baskets Methodology ……………………………………………………………37 Annex 5: Mobile Broadband baskets Methodology …………………………………………………………..38 Annex 6: Leased Line basket Methodology.....………………………………………………………………..39

Page Introduction 3 The Retail Tariff benchmarking study is one of the AREGNET studies originally initiated by TRA Bahrain in 2008 and updated annually. The 2012 update was released in March This AREGNET study allows readers to compare the retail price levels for telecommunications services in the Arab countries, and to draw comparisons with the OECD averages. The purpose of this TRA document is to summarize the UAE’s rankings compared with those of other GCC countries for each of the following services:  Fixed voice (PSTN)  Mobile telephony  Leased Lines  Broadband ADSL  Mobile broadband OECD : Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development)

Page Summary of overall results from the AREGNET study 4 PSTN service UAE prices for residential PSTN service are among the lowest in the GCC. Residential PSTN services are much cheaper than business PSTN services. Mobile service UAE prices for mobile services are among the lowest in the GCC and the Arab region. Fixed Broadband service UAE prices for low speed (>256 Kbps) residential fixed broadband are among the lowest in the GCC and the Arab region. UAE prices for medium speed (2-8 Mbps) residential fixed broadband are among the lowest prices in the GCC. UAE is one of only eight Arab countries to offer high speed (>15 Mb/s) broadband UAE prices for high speed broadband are the second cheapest in the GCC after Bahrain Mobile Broadband service UAE prices for medium speed (2-8 Mbps) mobile broadband are among the lowest in the GCC. UAE prices for high speed (> 8 Mbps) mobile broadband are relatively high compared to other GCC countries. Leased Line service UAE prices for leased line service are the forth lowest in the GCC..

Page TRA Index 5 To enable comparisons at the service levels, the TRA has developed an index based on the outputs of the study. This index works by combining countries’ scores on all ‘baskets’ related to a specific service, e.g. all PSTN baskets (low, medium, and high speeds). Based on the TRA Index, the UAE ranked as follows: Services UAE Ranking among GCC countries PSTN servicesNo. 1 Mobile servicesNo. 1 Fixed Broadband servicesNo. 1 Mobile Broadband servicesNo. 3 Leased Line servicesNo. 4

Page PSTN Tariffs 6

Page Residential PSTN Service – low usage basket 7 GCC CountriesRanking UAE No 1 Bahrain No 2 Qatar No 3 Oman No 4 Saudi Arabia No 5 Low usage PSTN residential basket (20 calls/month) USD/PPP UAE ranked first among GCC and Arab countries for the price of low usage PSTN residential services (20 calls/month) followed by Bahrain. UAE prices for low usage basket are much lower than OECD and Arab averages.

Page Residential PSTN Service – Medium usage basket 8 Medium usage PSTN residential basket (140 calls/month) USD/PPP UAE ranked first among GCC and Arab countries in terms of prices of the medium usage PSTN residential basket (140 calls/month). UAE prices for the medium usage basket are lower than OECD and Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking UAE No 1 Qatar No 2 Bahrain No 3 Oman No 4 Saudi Arabia No 5

Page Residential PSTN Service – high usage basket 9 High usage PSTN residential basket (420 calls/month) USD/PPP UAE ranked first among GCC and Arab countries for the price of the high usage PSTN residential basket (420 calls/month) UAE prices for the high usage basket are lower than OECD average and Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking UAE No 1 Qatar No 2 Saudi Arabia No 3 Oman No 4 Bahrain No 5

Page Business PSTN Service – low usage basket 10 USD/PPP UAE ranked second among GCC countries and third compared to Arab countries for the price of the low usage PSTN business basket (100 calls/month). UAE prices for the low usage basket are lower than OECD average and Arab averages. Low usage PSTN business basket (100 calls/month) GCC CountriesRanking Bahrain No 1 UAE No 2 Saudi Arabia No 3 Oman No 4 Qatar No 5

Page Business PSTN Service – High usage basket 11 USD/PPP UAE ranked second among GCC and Arab countries for the price of the high usage PSTN business basket (260 calls/month). UAE prices for the high usage basket are lower than Arab average prices but higher than OECD averages. High usage PSTN business basket (260 calls/month) GCC CountriesRanking Bahrain No 1 UAE No 2 Saudi Arabia No 3 Oman No 4 Qatar No 5

Page Mobile Tariffs 12

Page Mobile Service – Low usage basket 13 Low Usage Mobile basket (30 calls/month) USD/PPP UAE ranked second among GCC countries for the price of the Low usage basket (30 calls/month). UAE prices for the Low usage basket are lower than OECD and Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking Saudi Arabia No 1 UAE No 2 Kuwait No 3 Bahrain No 4 Qatar No 5 Oman No 6

Page Mobile Service – Medium usage basket 14 Medium Usage Mobile basket (300 calls/month) USD/PPP UAE ranked first among GCC and third compared to Arab countries for the price of the Medium usage basket (300 calls/month). UAE prices for the medium usage basket are much higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking UAE No 1 Bahrain No 2 Qatar No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Kuwait No 5

Page Mobile Service – High usage basket 15 High usage Mobile basket (900 calls/month) USD/PPP UAE ranked third among GCC countries for the price of the High usage mobile basket (900 calls/month). UAE prices for the high usage basket are higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking Bahrain No 1 Kuwait No 2 UAE No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Oman No 5 Qatar No 6

Page Mobile Service – SMS basket 16 SMS basket USD/PPP UAE ranked third among GCC countries for the SMS basket (400 SMS/month). UAE prices for the SMS basket are higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking Oman No 1 Saudi Arabia No 2 UAE No 3 Kuwait No 4 Bahrain No 5 Qatar No 6

Page Fixed Broadband Tariffs 17

Page Residential Fixed broadband Service – Low speed 18 Low usage/low speed (256 kb/s – 2.5 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked first among GCC countries for the price of low speed fixed broadband residential services. UAE prices for low speed are slightly higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking UAE No 1 Bahrain No 2 Oman No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Qatar No 5

Page Residential Fixed broadband Service – Medium speed 19 Low usage/Medium speed (2.5 – 15 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked second among GCC countries for the price of medium speed fixed broadband residential services. UAE prices for medium speed are much higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking (1) Bahrain No 1 UAE No 2 Oman No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Qatar No 5 (1) Only 14 Arab countries offer this speed

Page Business Fixed broadband Service – Low speed 20 Low usage/Low speed (256 Kb/s – 2.5 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked third among GCC countries for the price of low speed fixed broadband business services. UAE prices for low speed services are much higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking Oman No 1 Bahrain No 2 UAE No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Qatar No 5

Page Business Fixed broadband Service – Medium speed 21 Low usage/Medium speed (2.5 – 15 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked Third among GCC countries for the price of medium speed fixed broadband business services. UAE prices for medium speeds are much higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC countriesRanking (2) Saudi Arabia No 1 Oman No 2 UAE No 3 Qatar No 4 Bahrain No 5 (2) Only 12 Arab countries offer this speed

Page Business Fixed broadband Service – High speed 22 Low usage/High speed ( > 15 Mb/s ) USD/PPP UAE ranked Third among GCC countries for the price of high speed fixed broadband business services. UAE prices for high speeds are much higher than OECD averages but lower than Arab averages. GCC (3) CountriesRanking Saudi Arabia No 1 UAE No 2 Bahrain No 3 Oman No 4 (3) Only 8 Arab countries offer this speed

Page Mobile Broadband Tariffs 23

Page Residential Mobile broadband Service – Medium speed 24 Low usage/Medium speed (2-8 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked third among GCC countries for the price of medium speed mobile broadband residential services. UAE prices for residential medium speeds are lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking (5) Bahrain No 1 Oman No 2 UAE No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Qatar No 5 (5) Only 11 Arab countries offer this speed

Page Residential Mobile broadband Service – High speed 25 Low usage/High speed (> 8 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked third among GCC countries for the price of high speed mobile broadband residential services. UAE prices for residential high speeds are lower than Arab averages. GCC (6) CountriesRanking Bahrain No 1 Qatar No 2 UAE No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 Kuwait No 5 (6) Only 6 Arab countries offer this speed

Page Business Mobile broadband Service – Medium speed 26 Low usage/Medium speed (2-8 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked fourth among GCC countries for the price of medium speed mobile broadband business services. UAE prices for business medium speeds are lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking (7) Oman No 1 Bahrain No 2 Saudi Arabia No 3 UAE No 4 Qatar No 5 (7) Only 11 Arab countries offer this speed

Page Business Mobile broadband Service – High speed 27 Low usage/High speed (> 8 Mb/s) USD/PPP UAE ranked second among GCC countries for the price of high speed mobile broadband business services. UAE prices for business high speeds are lower than the Arab averages. (8) Only 5 Arab countries offer this speed GCC CountriesRanking Bahrain No 1 UAENo 2 Saudi ArabiaNo 3

Page Leased Line Tariffs 28

Page Leased line Service Kb/s Leased line basket USD/PPP UAE ranked fourth among GCC countries for the price of 64Kb/s leased line services. UAE price for 64 Kbps are lower than Arab averages. GCC CountriesRanking Qatar No 1 Saudi Arabia No 2 Bahrain No 3 UAE No 4 Oman No 5 No equivalent OECD data exists.

Page Leased line Service Kb/s Leased line basket USD/PPP GCC CountriesRanking Bahrain No 1 Qatar No 2 Oman No 3 Saudi Arabia No 4 UAE No 5 UAE ranked fifth among GCC countries for the price of 256Kb/s leased line services. No equivalent OECD data exists.

Page Leased line Service 31 2 Mb/s Leased line basket USD/PPP GCC CountriesRanking Qatar No 1 Saudi Arabia No 2 Oman No 3 UAE No 4 Bahrain No 5 UAE ranked fourth among GCC for the price of 2Mb/s leased line services.

Page A full copy of the AREGNET report can be found on the following website: elecommunicationsServiceintheArabCountriesvF.pdf elecommunicationsServiceintheArabCountriesvF.pdf 32

Page Annexes 33

Page 34 Annex 1: Table of Results

Page Annex 2: PSTN Baskets Methodology 35 The OECD 2012 basket methodology for PSTN services includes: installation, rental, fixed line calls (local & national calls), calls to mobiles, and International calls. The usage price is calculated using the weights shown in the table below. A time-of-day weighting is also applied:

Page Annex 3: Mobile Baskets Methodology 36 The OECD 2012 basket methodology for mobile services includes: installation, rental, calls to fixed lines, calls to mobiles, voice mail, SMS and selected discounts. The value of international calls are added to the national basket as a separate international element. Mobile baskets are calculated for both pre-paid and post-paid services. The usage price is calculated using the weights shown in the table below. A time-of- day weighting is also applied:

Page Annex 4: Fixed Broadband baskets methodology 37 The OECD 2012 basket methodology for Fixed broadband services includes: installation, rental and usage costs. The Fixed broadband data is split into different speed ranges in order to obtain consistency between services compared. The ranges are listed in the table below : Only Low Usage baskets are used in this presentation.

Page Annex 5: Mobile Broadband baskets methodology 38 Mobile Broadband baskets are not yet agreed by the OECD so the available Teligen (4) profiles are used instead. The Teligen profile for Mobile broadband services considers: installation charges, rental and usage costs. Two speed ranges of 2 – 8 Mb/s and >8 Mb/s are also used in order to distinguish between “traditional” mobile broadband offers in the 3.6 – 7.2 Mb/s range, and newer offers with advertised speeds at 21 Mb/s and higher. Only the advertised speeds are considered. (4) The consultant who conducted the benchmarking study for AREGNET Only Low Usage baskets are used in this presentation. Mobile broadband baskets

Page Annex 6: Leased Lines baskets methodology 39 Non-recurring charges (installation) are excluded from the basket. Only monthly rental charges are included. The basket weights of the 2012 OECD basket methodology are:

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