There will be a third UAE mobile operator, except that there won't

The telecom regulator's chief, Mohamed al Ghanim, put a stop sign on the road to telecom competition in statements this week. (Pic by Ryan Carter / The National)

The Mecom telco conference is happening right now in Abu Dhabi, and the telecom regulator is doing some interviews. And as has become a great TRA tradition, when interviews are given, epic, completely unrealistic hopes are raised for some good news.

And so the good news came. "UAE calls for new mobile virtual network operators" said the Gulf News headline. "Move could increase services and reduce rates." The National, perpetual wet blanket that we are, put it slightly differently: "Regulator puts third telecom operator on hold"

"The market is not ready, and it's premature to talk about a third operator," the TRA chief, Mohamed al Ghanim, told The National's David George-Cosh, a Beep Beep co-editor.

It turns out that a headline writer got a little over-enthusiastic on the Gulf News story - as the lead paragraph makes clear, "the UAE telecom industry could see increased services and reduced rates on fixed line telephony as the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) says it is ready for a new entrant."

A virtual fixed-line operator would mean little to the average resident - seriously, who uses or cares about their fixed line phone these days? For businesses, it could be good news - a company basically just providing a more cluey, customer-friendly front end for a corporate phone service. "Managed services would be a focus" of a virtual fixed line operator, Gulf News' Nadia Saleem wrote.

If a virtual fixed-line operator could get into the internet provider business, that would be big news, and good news. But with broadband internet being a bastion of the super high-margin, ultra uncompetitive nature of the telecom duopoly, I would advise Beep Beep readers not to hold their breath on seeing competition in that space.

Also of note from the round of interviews given at Mecom - Mr al Ghanim told Business 24-7 that national broadband / fixed-line competition will begin in June. That is also the deadline he provided in his Gulf News interview. Lets watch and wait on that one. And finally, in the 24-7 story, "the end of the year" is given as the new deadline for introducing number portability.