Under the Chairmanship of HE Mohamad Bin Ahmad Al-Qamzi, the Board of Directors of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) held its last meeting for 2009 in December. The meeting, which took place at TRA’s Board office in Dubai, discussed policy related issues and reviewed TRA’s annual budget for 2010.

During the meeting, the Board endorsed TRA’s budget for 2010 and signed off several regulatory and policy related items including fair market competition policy, a number of spectrum related policies, the policy on “spam SMS” and several licensing forms in addition to approving TRA’s “Statute”. The Board also discussed the contractual agreement to establish the “Emirates Foundation for Mobile TV Broadcasting” and the endorsement of an external auditor. Members of the Board were briefed on the proposed Executive Order of the UAE Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003 which is to be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval. The Board also discussed several issues related to the ICT sector in the UAE.
2009 saw many achievements for TRA, most importantly, the revision and evaluation of the proposed offer for Mobile TV licensing presented by a consortium of several companies last October, and approving a Public Access Mobile Radio “PAMR” license to Nedaa’ Company. TRA also licensed Etisalat as the first certification service provider in the UAE. The Authority also adopted the marketing plans to increase awareness and market the .ae domain name registration.

The past year also saw the nomination of TRA to a 2nd term for the membership of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as the nomination of TRA’s Director of International Affairs to the membership of the ITU’s Radio Regulations Board (RRB12), the first Arab to be nominated to this post.

TRA’s fair market competition policy and licensing of a second mobile operator in the UAE resulted in an unprecedented mobile penetration rate of 200%, the highest in the world, with mobile subscriptions reaching 10 million. In the last quarter of 2009, TRA completed carrying out an extensive benchmarking survey of the mobile networks and services provided by mobile licensees (Etisalat and du), which covered both the second and third generation of Mobile Networks.

2009 also was a year highlighting TRA’s Corporate Social Responsibility by supporting several initiatives and projects including the “Echo of Silence” with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the first of its kind in the Arab world to provide people with hearing and speech impediments the use of modern ICT technologies to help them integrate and become on par with their peers. TRA also launched and is funding the “Emirates Telescope” project with Emirates Foundation of Science and advanced technology.

TRA succeeded in promoting a safe cyber environment for all users, government, corporations and individuals alike in 2009. Through its Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT), TRA signed several MOUs with governmental and non-governmental agencies to ensure the safety and protection of their IT infrastructure and online data. 2009 was the birth year for “Salim” the Emirati Cyber Security Advisor developed by aeCERT as a public awareness tool to provide safety tips and recommendations to computer and internet users. TRA also through its attentive .ae Domain Administration, announced its plan to launch .emarat (.امارات) in the UAE, the first Arab country to introduce an Arabic domain name.

TRA participated in several conferences and exhibitions including the 9th International Defense Exhibition & Conference 2009 (IDEX’09), Telecom World Exhibition & Conference 2009, Middle East Communications Conference & Exhibition 2009 (MECOM2009), and GITEX.