Mena region high-speed internet uptake rises 40% in a year

Top global ranking for UAE in terms of fibre to the home penetration rates.

High-speed internet uptake by households in the Middle East and North Africa region increased by 40 per cent last year to exceed 1.5 million connections, a senior telecoms official said.

“UAE was ranked number one for the FTTH [fibre to the home] rates penetration globally for the past two years,” said Suleiman Al Hedaithy, the chairman of the Fibre to the Home Council Middle East and North Africa. “The numbers continue to grow rapidly.”

Despite requiring billions of dollars for the roll-out of FTTH, telecoms operators could still get return on their investments, according to Mr Al Hedaithy.

“Around the world, telecom operators are transforming their networks to deliver the next generation services,” he said. “In the future networks, fibre optics wires, not copper, will run all the way to consumer homes and businesses. Operators can expect higher average revenue per user, lower churn rates, and operational expenditure savings.”

He was speaking this week in Dubai at the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference, which began on Sunday and ends on April 10.

On the business front, high-speed internet helps companies to save on travel, office rental costs, and enables them to make a shift to cloud computing.

“The speed, reliability and secure fibre connections make cloud services viable,” he said.

Bandwidth has experienced continuous growth of up to 20 per cent for the past seven years and will continue to accommodate content services such as video streaming and online gaming.

“Broadband networks have transformed our society. Smart devices, digital media and new services have changed the way we live, the way we do things and the way we interact with each other,” he said.

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