The UAE’s integrated telecom service provider, du, and Injazat, the leading information communication and technology and business process managed services provider in the United Arab Emirates, have formally entered into a go-to-market partnership agreement to provide business customers with state-of-the-art networked IT services. It is envisaged the new agreement once finalised, will allow du and Injazat, who currently have a longstanding partnership, to quickly integrate Injazat’s latest world-class managed networked IT services with their combined market leading telecommunication services and business solutions.

“Du and Injazat share tremendous synergy in the area of managed network services. The benefits of a potential joint proposition could see customers gain significant return from their networks through greater productivity and reduced operating expenses. Not only will this potential collaboration be beneficial to the UAE’s business by making these services available to them, but it will serve as a benchmark for the increased adoption of managed networked IT services in the region,” commented Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer, du.

Together, the two companies are looking to launch managed networked IT services, which will allow businesses to dramatically reduce up-front investment costs, while also accelerating the adoption of managed networked IT services on a large scale.

“This recent venture strengthens our existing partnership with du and combines du’s superior telecom expertise with our business solution experience to provide the UAE’s businesses with highly sophisticated managed networked IT services. We look forward to exploring the opportunity of working with du to provide advanced networked services that will considerably reduce costs and boost efficiency for UAE businesses,” commented Ibrahim Mohamed Lari, CEO, Injazat.

In March 2009, du and Injazat had signed a 3-year deal under which Injazat provides managed collocation services for du’s mission-critical systems through its Abu Dhabi-based Tier IV data centre, the first commercially-available facility of its kind in the region. The fault-tolerant centre supports reliable, secure and high-value 24-hour IT managed services incorporating IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards.

 

(AFP) - Smartphones will make up over half of Asian mobile phone sales by 2015, with 477 million units likely to be sold, an industry report said.

Consultancy Frost and Sullivan said smartphones would account for 54% of the Asia-Pacific mobile market in five years, up sharply from five% in 2009.

The sharp take-up rate for smartphones will be a huge revenue boost for telecom operators as it means a surge in demand for data services, the consultancy said.

Smartphones are high-end mobile devices providing faster access to data connections such as e-mail and internet browsing than so-called feature phones, which have less computing ability.

Subscribers usually pay more for mobile data services, translating into higher average revenue per user (ARPU) for operators keen to make up for flat or declining earnings growth from feature phones.

"Smartphones are critical to every operator's mobile broadband business case, as a smartphone user's ARPU typically increase by 25 to 100% after adoption depending on the market," said Marc Einstein, the consultancy's Industry Manager.

"The Asia-Pacific market is particularly interesting for smartphones as there has been significant uptake in emerging markets like China, India and Indonesia, even among prepaid users," he said in the report.

Apple's phenomenally popular iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry, a favorite with corporate users, are largely credited with sparking consumer interest in smartphones in the last few years.