Etisalat leads the UAE’s market where it competes with du (and MVNO Virgin Mobile). Emirates International Telecommunications is a shareholder in both du and Virgin Mobile in the country.
Whilst two competing entities, both Etisalat and du have a common shareholder in Emirates Investment Authority which has 60% share in the former and a 39.5% share in the latter which creates an unusual situation in the market.
UAE - telecom market statistics Q3 2024
The two operators have a fixed network sharing deal. There are an estimated 13,000 towers in the UAE of which Etisalat owns 8,000.
Both Etisalat and du have live 5G networks and are investing aggressively in new sites, with combined targets of nearly 1,000 new 5G sites in the Emirates.
UAE- tower ownership Q3 2024
E& claims to have made significant progress towards becoming net-zero by 2030, accelerating the implementation of its climate action projects, including energy-efficient ratio equipment and AI to optimise power consumption.
The MNO has also heavily invested in converting indoor sites to outdoor free cooling systems and installing on-site solar
