Etisalat will not feel the financial impact of the UAE telecom regulator’s decision to suspend BlackBerry services in the country until the last quarter of this year, according to Martin Kohlhase, assistant vice president - analyst for UAE corporate at Moody’s office in Dubai.
“Although Blackberry services are thought to be one of Etisalat's key generators of revenue and profitability, Moody's believes that the conversion rate of customers to permitted data services and the industry's ability to maintain the momentum for mobile data services will be more important than any short-term dips in revenue in determining the impact on Etisalat,” Kohlhase wrote in a statement.
The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced on Sunday its decision to discontinue BlackBerry services such as the BlackBerry Messenger, email, web browsing and international roaming due to cyber security concerns. The ban will take effect on October 11.
The Moody’s analyst, however, believes that most of the 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers in the UAE will eventually move to “alternative permitted mobile data devices,” particularly since the country’s mobile service providers, Etisalat and du, will have more than two months to convince their customers to make the switch.
The ratings agency is expecting Etisalat to announce its fourth-quarter results by March 2011.
Meanwhile, Etisalat said they are offering valuable, alternative mobility packages such as a free smartphone and lower monthly subscription fee for its existing BlackBerry customers who were subscribed to the service as of July 31.
“Our first priority was to develop a package which will ensure a seamless migration for existing BlackBerry customers to the new Etisalat alternative packages on October 11, 2010,” Khalifa Al Shamsi, Etisalat’s Senior Vice-President, Marketing, said in a statement.
The UAE telecom firm added that the new packages will offer basic mobile services such as SMS, MMS and internet dat, as well as other value-added features such as the choice to receive either voice calls of up to 550 minutes per month or sign a 12-month contract and receive a new smartphone for free.
Smartphones covered by the promotion include: Nokia E72, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini, Nokia E66, Sony Ericsson Vivaz, Nokia N900, Nokia N 97 mini, Sony Ericsson Vivaz pro, Sony Ericsson Satio, Samsung Wave, Samsung Galaxy S, iPhone.
The basic package will be offered at a reduced price of Dh260 ($71) per month – from Dh295 – and will include 1,000 local and international SMS and MMS, unlimited local data downloads and 10MB of roaming data.
Etisalat is also encouraging its BlackBerry subscribers to visit its
dedicated website for additional information.
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