The UAE has gained recognition for its improving IT industry by climbing 12 places up to 33rd in the ICT Development Index – the highest increase of any country.
Measuring the Information Society – the fifth annual edition of the report commissioned by the International Telecommunications Union – measures standards in 157 economies worldwide.
Value increases in the access and use sub-indices put the UAE way above the global average. All indicators included in the access sub-index showed improvement from 2011 to 2012, while mobile phone penetration rose by more than 14 percent, to 170 percent in 2012.
H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director General, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said, “The significant achievements of the UAE in the report proves that the TRA is well on the way to securing its vision of providing an optimal enabling environment in which the UAE’s ICT sector will emerge as a leader in the global market place.
“With 85 per cent of individuals in the UAE using the internet, the UAE is significantly above the world average of 36 per cent. This is a testament to the penetration and quality of services provided by UAE’s licensees,” he said.
A household survey conducted by the country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA, 2012) confirms that virtually all residents use a mobile phone and that 85 percent of the population uses the Internet regularly and for the most part through a high-speed connection (Box 2.7).
In the use sub-index, UAE registered great progress in the number of wireless-broadband subscriptions. By end 2012, penetration had reached 51 percent, compared to 22 percent the previous year.
The services also proved relatively cheap: the UAE ranks among the most affordable countries for prepaid mobile-broadband services, which cost less than 1 per cent of GNI p.c.
The MIS 2013 shows that the UAE is well above the global average in terms of mobile-cellular subscriptions, the proportion of individuals using the internet, and the proportion of households with internet access.
Al Ghanim said, “A knowledge-based online community is one of the key pillars of the Leadership’s Vision 2021 which calls for an outstanding ICT infrastructure that offers an edge to businesses as they transact and interact with the world. The last IDI confirms that the TRA is successfully working towards securing the Leadership’s vision for the future.”
