Etisalat
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Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, also known as Etisalat, is the sole telecommunications carrier and internet service provider in the United Arab Emirates. Etisalat provides all type of telecom services in addition to cable TV service. Etisalat is currently moving to a 3G network and NGN Concept in its infrastructure.
Etisalat currently has a monopoly on all of the telephone,internet and Cable TV usage originating from the country, except in certain Dubai free zones such as Dubai Internet City and modern housing developments.
In May 2005, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority approved the formation of a new telecoms company, which will effectively end Etisalat's monopoly, creating a duopoly. The new $1.1 billion telecoms provider will be 40% owned by the UAE's General Pensions and Social Security Authority and other state interests, with the remaining shares earmarked for private sector shareholders including an initial public offering, which may or may not be open to foreigners. The new company, if to ever see the light of day, would likely use Etisalat's current copper telephone cables and Internet link system. Speculation is ripe about whether or not the new company will be any different from Etisalat, and whether or not it will censor the internet by default.
According to WAM (official news agency of the United Arab Emirates), "At the end of September 2005, the number of lines in service are 1,222,905 for telephone, 4,305,821 for mobile and 4,698,17 for internet. Mobile penetration now exceeds 95 per cent."
Recently eCompany/Etisalat incorporated iZone, a system of WiFi hotspots in central locations, such as shopping malls, restaurants, and shisha cafe's. iZone can be utilized by either purchasing prepaid cards, which offer 15 AED/hour access rates (about 4.5 USD an hour), or if they are a dial-up internet user, they can use their previous existing account and pay 10 AED an hour (about 3 USD an hour), or if they are a broadband user, they can use their account and gain access for 6 AED an hour (about 2.5 USD an hour).
On May 24th 2006, Etisalat officially released their new corporate logo.
eCompany
Although owned by Etisalat,"eCompany" (formally Emirates Internet & Multimedia), provides the Internet for the majority in the United Arab Emirates.For home users, eCompany provides dial-up connection, ISDN connection, and cable and DSL connection. The Cable and DSL connections are known as "Al Shamil". Al Shamil offers speeds from 256K up to 2Mb.
eCompany was the sole Internet service provider of the United Arab Emirates, but temporarily a second ISP, Sahm Net, which was unaffected by eCompany's censorship, operated in certain new housing developments and Dubai Media City and Dubai Internet City. Recently Sahm was acquired by DIC (Dubai Internet City), although as of April 2006 they were still free of the UAE's proxy.
The dial-up and ISDN connections are billed by the hour, whereas the Domestic/Residential Cable and DSL connections have a fixed monthly rate depending on speed, whereas Business connections are quite legendary for being billed depending on the amount of users and the usage of the connection.
Censorship
EIM blocks sites that may contain:
- Pornography
- Content that criticises the rulers of the United Arab Emirates
- Information about cracking, phreaking, etc
- Information on how to get around the internet block
- Websites offering P2P services/torrent files
- Gay and lesbian sites
- Other material that EIM, or the Government of the United Arab Emirates considers objectionable
- Websites that offer VOIP telephony (such as Skype) at subsidised rates, which affect Etisalat's profits
- Certain blogs
- Certain file hosting websites
- Certain Image hosts
- Criminal Skills
Etisalat rarely makes public announcements regarding the reasons for its blockages; users that do complain in the manner suggested by the ISP are usually greeted with a pre-written email which suggests the mentioned website contained nudity. Etisalat never announces that it is going to block / unblock a website; its actions are widely seen as obscure to the user on many counts. Etisalat employees have previously made statements in the media that they do not agree with the censorship of the internet; in many cases they point the finger towards the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority which apparently forces the censorship as the country is Islamic.
On visiting a website that is blocked, the user will redirected to http://proxy.emirates.net.ae (only accessible from the UAE)
The SecureComputing system categorises sites into one of 62 categories, including pornography. Anyone can check what a site has been classified and suggest an alternative or categorize an unlisted website using the URL: http://www.securecomputing.com/sfwhere/ ; It is believed that Etisalat have partial control over the list.
Etisalat also individually bans websites by either IP address. In some cases, when alternative access is available (Etisalat does not proxy the HTTPS protocol, so if a site opens https ports it will always be available), they may remove the site from their DNS servers entirely, such as http://www.antiproxy.com. This ISP notably bans The Best Page in the Universe, a popular webpage written by a writer who writes many rants and many self-aggrandizing pieces.
Etisalat also has come under fire for blocking some blogs. In July of 2005, [Secret Dubai diary] was blocked for nearly two weeks after [publishing a poem] that offended many Emiratis. This action attracted local and international media attention. The incident is mentioned on the [Human Rights Watchlist].
Although Etisalat unblocked the Secret Dubai diary, they continue to silently block seemingly innocuous sites and blogs, some of which deal with UAE content. The entire [Live Journal communities server] was suddenly blocked for about a week starting June 2nd, 2006, and then just as suddenly was unblocked.
Etisalat has also been heavily criticised for its blocking of flickr a free photo uploading / community service. Also, sites like hi5.com (a friend-finding service) have been blocked and then unblocked in the past.
Controversy
- In mid 2000, Etisalat accused a British expat of hacking into its network, Lee Ashurst claimed to be being used by the ISP as a scapegoat.
- In mid 2005, Etisalat had experienced supposed "international submarine cable cuts". These have brought Etisalat's so-called "redundant" network to its knees on more than one occasion. On occasions when the bandwidth throughput of the country have been affected, Etisalat prioritised http requests (web surfing) and blocked most other traffic completely. Etisalat said that either an anchor from a boat dragged on the seabed and damaged the cable, or a ship sank and fell on the cable damaging it. It denied compensation to individuals/companies affected by the internet cutoff, which lasted for several months.
- Etisalat to date actively puts users through a proxy which filters out "objectionable" content.
External links
- http://www.etisalat.ae (Official website of Etisalat)
- http://eim.ae/eim/isp/english/index.html (Official website of EIM)
- http://proxy.emirates.net.ae (Webpage that comes when trying to visit a restricted site. NOTE: this page is not accessible outside of the UAE, but a screenshot of the page can be viewed above.)
- http://www.ecompany.ae (Internet division of Etisalat)
- http://www.emirates.net.ae (the former name but a still used site for the internet division)
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