du (telco)
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| du Telecommunication | |
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| Type | Public |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Dubai,  United Arab Emirates |
| Key people | Ahmad Bin Byat Chairman, Osman Sultan CEO |
du is a telecommunications company in the in the United Arab Emirates. Legal name Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) commercially rebranded as du in February 2006.
It is 40 percent owned by the UAE Federal Government, 20% by Mubadala Development Company, 20% by TECOM Investments and 20% by public shareholders. It is listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and trades under the name du.
du currently provides fixed line, Internet and pay TV services over ethernet in some of the free zones of Dubai, following its purchase of TECOM Investments' telecom assets.
du launched its mobile service on February 11, 2007 with call tariffs almost identical to that of Etisalat, thus eliminating any possibility of a price war between the two incumbent UAE telcos.
du now offers pay by the second where users pay 0.5 fils for every second
The phone code for du mobile phone numbers is 055- XXXXXXX.
du features a SIM-AT menu called "MyWorld". Breaking news, the current headlines, or jokes and riddles in both English and Arabic can be accessed through this service for a small fee. It also includes "Smart Roaming" or just "Roaming" for quickly activating international roaming on your phone.
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[edit] Criticisms
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The UAE telecoms market is highly restricted, with both major players being largely government owned. There is little real competition, especially in internet services, with the choice of provider generally being determined by geographic location. du typically has a monopoly with freezones, while Etisalat has a monopoly elsewhere.
Around 11.15 AM January 30, 2008, a ship's anchor apparently severed fibre optic cables between Palermo, Italy, and Alexandria, Egypt. Providers across the Middle East and as far as India and Pakistan were heavily affected with a significant slowdown of communications reported. Du was taken completely off-line for hours, with many users not having any connectivity until 2 days later. Given the monopoly position of Du in free zones, companies in Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City were unable to have any alternative connectivity in place.
[edit] Censorship
In March 2008, Du began blocking VOIP traffic, preventing customers from using VOIP systems. The blocking is justified on the grounds that Du has invested heavily and its international calls provide the major source of revenue.
On April 14, 2008, Du started instituting the same widespread censorship of the web that has be practiced by Etisalat for some years. Any attempt to access content deemed 'inappropriate' by the UAE censor results in a 'blocked' page. As well as pornography, blocking includes blogs, forums and news articles that are critical of the UAE, as well as a proportion of sites that seem to be accidentally blocked as they have no obviously controversial content.
The censorship also applies to Dubai Media City and Dubai Internet City, where news organizations BBC and Reuters are located, as well as major IT companies such as Microsoft, Sony Ericsson and IBM.
The UAE proxy can be bypassed by various methods including by setting up a VPN to connect securely to a server in a free country such as the USA. Various US companies offer VPN services for around $15 per month, and the setup process is very simple. This restores full uncensored internet access, with the advantage that UAE authorities cannot 'snoop' on the traffic. All internet software such as VOIP and peer-to-peer download programs will also work. While the UAE may block access to the web sites companies providing VPN services to try to prevent UAE users being able to setup the services, it is possible to get trusted family members overseas to make the credit card transaction for you and supply you with the account details.
As of 11th April 2008 Skype VOIP calls were possible over the Du network, however the connection speed was slow and voice / video calls were repeatedly dropped. In addition at various times since then the BBC news network has been prohibited and a 'blocked' page displayed.
