Du to introduce '052' prefix code

Du is set to introduce its new prefix code number 052 in its mobile phone services to be added to the already existing 055 as the company is pushing ahead with expansion plans to become the largest local GSM service provider, a senior Du executive was reported on Wednesday as saying.

The company, one of the two telecom service providers in the second largest Arab economy, expects such plans to be implemented in the first quarter of 2012 as it had used up to 80 per cent of the 055 code capacity.

“This is needed to cater for the needs of the growing number of our subscribers,” Farid Faridooni, Du’s executive vice president for corporate affairs was quoted as saying by 'Al Ittihad' newspaper.

He said the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, which oversees the telecom sector in the OPEC member, has already given approval to Du to use the 052 prefix number in its GSM services and to “open the serial number 9” in those services, adding this will give Du an extra one million users.

"We will put up the new GSM numbers for sale at the same prices applied to the existing numbers including both pre-paid and monthly contract service.”

Faridooni said Du has an existing capacity of around eight million numbers but that they have started to run out after the number of the company’s GSM subscribers exceeded five million.

“The new prefix number 0529 will provide Du with an additional one million customers and I believe this will allow the company to meet the growing needs of its clients in the first half of 2012 based on the new subscription rates in Du since the start of 2011,” he said.

In comments last week, Faridooni said the rapid growth in its business boosted Du’s mobile phone market share to 46 per cent in just a few years and the company expects to become the largest service provider in 2012.

“At the end of October, our mobile phone market share peaked at 46 per cent thanks to our flourishing business….we expect to become the largest mobile phone service provider in the country in 2012,” he said.

“We expect a continuation in our business expansion and in our revenue… after the end of the fourth quarter, Du will announce its revenue and the number of its clients,” he told Emirat Alyoum newspaper.

Faridooni gave no figures but the UAE now has an estimated 11 million mobile phone users, including over 600,000 blackberry subscribers.