1.6m new mobile phone users in 10 months in UAE

Nearly 1.62 million new mobile phone users joined the UAE market in the first 10 months of 2012 to push the total number of subscribers to a record high of 13.34 million, official data showed on Wednesday. Fixed line users increased by nearly 115,000 but the number of internet subscribers through routers and fixed lines declined by nearly 378,000 during that period as many of them switched to smart phones browsers, showed the figures by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). A report showed du appears to be narrowing the gap with the UAE’s first service provider Etisalat as it controlled more than six million subscribers while nearly seven million users were registered with Etisalat at the end of October. The report also showed pre-paid subscription remained the dominant mobile phone service, with their number standing at 11.66 million at the end of October, more than 85 per cent of the total GSM users in the second largest Arab economy.   From Emirates