According to the report of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), the year 2020 witnessed a noticeable increase in the demand for telecommunications and Internet services in the UAE.
"The United Arab Emirates is one of the leading countries in the region in the field of digital transformation. It is supported by qualified national human resources who are open to international best practices. The UAE’s teams have always been keen to develop their skills and enhance their online presence; they develop their strategies to keep pace with the developments and prepare for the future. It is for these reasons, that the UAE achieves distinguished results every year," said Richard Kerby, President, Richard Kerby LLC, who is an expert advisor of international repute on the digital transformation of governments.
According to the UN E-Government Survey 2020, the UAE's telecommunications infrastructure ranks first in the Gulf, Arab Region, and Western Asia, and seventh globally in the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index. While in the Smart Services Index, the UAE ranks first in the Gulf, the Arab Region, and West Asia, and the eighth in the world.
During 2020, the UAE also maintained its first place globally in the mobile phone subscriptions index and advanced from second place to first in the world in mobile broadband Internet subscriptions index. Additionally, the UAE also ranked first in the Arab world and at the regional level in the Information & communication technologies Index, the Internet Access Index, and the Internet Use Index.
In terms of the overall percentage of Internet users, the UAE made progress by reaching the fifth position globally and a qualitative leap from the 68th place in the world to the 29th position in the fixed broadband subscriptions index.
In terms of launching and usage of the fifth-generation network (5G), the UAE ranked first in the Arab Region and fourth globally, according to the Global Connectivity Index issued by Carphone Warehouse, which specialized in technology benchmarking.
Adding up to another tech milestone, the UAE came first in the Middle East for transformation to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), according to statistics issued by Ripe NCC, Akamai Technologies, and Google. In detail, the transition to IPv6 helped Internet service providers deliver better services and significantly impacted implementing 5G technologies for mobile phone networks and digital transformation.
On the other hand, in the ODIN report issued by the Open Data Watch, which included 187 countries, the UAE ranked 16th globally, leaping 51 places at once, compared to 2018. In this indicator, the UAE outperformed countries such as the USA, Korea, Switzerland, France, Spain, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
His Excellency Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director-General of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, said, “we were able to meet the nation's growing needs during the last year and exceed expectations with the readiness of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority in its pursuit of excellence, which helped to achieve impressive results at local, regional and global levels. We consider these achievements a catalyst for achieving more positive results and will help us continue efforts to reaffirm the United Arab Emirates position in the world”.
