Mr. Stephen Blust
Chairman of the Working Party 5D
Chairman’s Deputies
Distinguished guests,
On behalf of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the ITU Radio-communication Sector Working Party 5D Meeting, demonstrating the TRA’s continuous support to all ITU related activities.
The importance of this meeting is in the cooperation of the ITU various members to reach advanced solutions to enhance and develop the Radio-communication systems, especially the Third Generation Systems that this meeting is focusing on finding the proper technical and regulatory solutions for, in order to gain technological development and the enhancement of these systems’ services in specific, and the telecom services in general.
Dear guests, your participation within this working party that is considered one of the largest specialized technical working groups in this kind of services among the ITU Radio-communication Sector, reflects the ITU clear vision towards the importance of exchanging expertise and cooperation among the member states in order to achieve the primary goals of this party.
This year’s meeting is mostly focused on regulating and organizing such services in developed countries, and reaching a mutual understanding among the participants on the requirements of spectrum, and on the studies of the market situation, and on the future development of the IMT-2000 and the Third Generation Mobile Systems; where the number and quality of participants demonstrates the will of each stakeholder of the industry worldwide to fulfill the goals of the meeting.
In this occasion, I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to the ITU for its continuous confidence in the UAE represented by the TRA to support its activities; where we look forward for the continuous development of the cooperation between the ITU and the TRA in the ICT field.
I also like to extend my appreciation to “du” for sponsoring the event, especially that after around 16 months since the introduction of «du» as the second licensed telecom operator into the UAE telecom market, we are proud to assure that competition has fueled the rapid development of the sector, where according to the latest statistics, the annual growth rate of mobile phones services in the UAE has reached 38% with a penetration rate of more than 165%, and the internet annual growth rate reached 32% with a penetration rate of around 50%.
Before concluding, I additionally like to extend my gratitude to the members of the ITU Radio-communication Sector and Mr. Stephen Blust, Chairman of the Working Party 5D, for their support and cooperation that made this meeting possible.
Finally, I thank you all for your presence and participation in this meeting and wish you a pleasant stay in the UAE, and successful discussions.
Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim
Board Member & Director General
UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)
