By Pia Rufino
The United Arab Emirates is striving to be the first country in the world to have 100 per cent broadband penetration by 2012, Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansoori has said.
An ambitious fibre-to-home technology currently being implemented by Etisalat, a Telecoms company in the UAE, is said to be capable to achieve the country’s aim.
”Mobile penetration rate in the UAE has crossed 200 per cent and broadband penetration among households stood at 40 per cent in 2010,” Al Mansoori said.
He also said during the Abu Dhabi Telecoms CEO Summit that the UAE is placed in the top 10 globally for the quality of its broadband service.
In 2009-2010, the UAE, he said, ranked the first among the Arab states in the Networked Readiness Index of the World Economic Forum, and 23rd among all 133 countries assessed.
The NRI measures the capacity of an economy to fully leverage ICT for increased competitiveness and development.
‘’The UAE is also implementing an e-government initiative aimed at faster and efficient delivery of services and eventually the accomplishment of a technologically competent,’ Al Mansoori said.
According to the Internet World Stats, web penetration rate during the last one decade was 79.1 per cent in Germany, 82.5 per cent in UK, 68.9 per cent in France, 77.3 per cent in United States and in Asian countries such as 31.6 per cent in China, 81.1 per cent in South Korea, 78.2 per cent in Japan, 6.9 per cent in India.
In the Gulf countries during the last decade, web penetration rate was 38.1 per cent in Saudi Arabia, 51.8 per cent in Qatar, 39.4 per cent in Kuwait and 88 per cent in Bahrain.
Reference: http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2011/may/19/uae-aims-100-cent-broadband-connectivity/
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