When asked what challenges were faced when launching Du, CEO Osman Sultan explains: "Launching in a market like the UAE had three very important, unique characteristics.
The first one is that, it is unprecedented in the world that, at the time when the second player entered the market, the level of penetration of telecom services was so high, not to mention the level of saturation”. Mr. Sultan was confronted with the lack of coverage in the first months of Du.
However, since then, the critics have gone silent. “So, that is one thing that created very high expectations of the market and the necessity for Du to really differentiate itself. Secondly, I cannot think of another example where a startup operation was licensed to offer fully fledged telecommunication services, not only mobile services but also fixed, broadband, TV and international traffic; all this at the same time.” Last but not least, Mr. Sultan is also committed to another important party in his portfolio: “The third one is not related to the UAE market but is related to our company: the founding shareholders of this company decided that they would not partner with an existing operator, be it international or regional."
In less than two years, Du has been able to obtain 23.6% of the market share and has reached the two million subscribers mark. For Osman Sultan, the time has come to look abroad: "The mandate of Du today is focused on the UAE market.
It’s worth highlighting that two of our major shareholders – the Mubadala group and Tcom, representing respectively the Abu Dhabi government and Dubai Holding – already have some operations on the international arena in telecom."
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