Satellite dish rules go largely ignored across Abu Dhabi

Hundreds of unused, and illegal satellite dishes remain on rooftops and balconies across the emirate, despite a municipality decree allowing only four per building.

Satellite dishes visible from the street crowd the roof of a building near Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre. Ravindranath K / The National

ABU DHABI // The eyesore of satellite dishes across the roofs of the capital is slowly diminishing as restrictions on installing them come into play.

In the past two weeks, building security guards say they have been warned by Abu Dhabi Municipality to abide by a rule stating there should be no more than four dishes on a building’s roof, and those should not be visible from the street.

Landlords, property managers and tenants have been told they have a month to remove dishes or they will face fines.

Mohammed Abdulaziz, a security guard in Madinat Zayed who had a copy of the municipality notice, said: “Already we have stopped allowing anybody to install new dishes and asked tenants to remove them.

“The municipality inspectors told us to remove them in a month’s time otherwise the landlord has to face hefty fines for breaking municipal rules.”

The municipality’s decree limiting the number of dishes was issued in 2012.

The National visited buildings in Madinat Zayed, Khalidiya and Electra Street and found that most buildings of between five and 10 storeys had 15 to 50 satellite dishes, many of which were visible from the street.

Warning notices were pasted at almost all of the older buildings, calling on landlords, tenants and property management companies to remove dishes.

The municipality also ordered them to remove the dishes from balconies, windows, walls, roofs and domestic gardens.

It said cables should not be left hanging from buildings.

Mr Abdulaziz’s building has 20 flats, with more than 14 satellite dishes installed and some left seemingly unused.

“For a year we have not allowed any new antennas, otherwise we have to pay fines,” he said.

An Indian resident in Al Zahiyah said a removal warning had been pasted in front of his building’s lift.

“I don’t think in one month the municipality is going to remove the den of satellite dishes on almost all buildings,” said Rafique Khan.

“If the municipality strictly took action against all building owners, immediately everybody would comply, but if they remain lenient in its rules implementations, the situation would not change.”

Abu Dhabi Municipality could not confirm how many fines had been issued since the ruling.

Ahmed Al Mazroui, director of external centres at the municipality, said four satellite dishes, with central antenna systems, were enough to service all apartments in a building.

“This enables occupants to dispense with having dozens of satellite dishes randomly installed on rooftops,” Mr Al Mazroui said.

“It fulfils their need of the TV service and disposes of the large number of unused satellite dishes on rooftops.”

Mr Al Mazroui said large numbers of dishes on rooftops or balconies could be dangerous, as they blocked emergency workers and their equipment.

Landlords are taking action. Hameed, a building security guard in Khalidiya, said: “My five-storey building has about 20 satellite dishes and we have asked our tenants to remove them in a month.

“We have already removed some of them, which were left unattended, but tenants don’t listen,” he said.

“We will remove them as we can’t pay fines for this.”

Shahedullah Rana, a Bangladeshi security guard at a residential building on Electra Street, said the municipality had issued warnings for years.

“All the time, we ask our existing and new tenants to avoid installing satellite dishes but some tenants ignore it,” he said.

However, he said the municipality seems more strict on enforcing the law now, with inspectors telling him they will come back again after 20 days to check for any violations. Mr Rana did not say how many dishes were on his building’s roof.

The municipality and Etisalat refused to comment when contacted while the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said on Thursday that the matter was for Abu Dhabi Municipality and would not comment further.