According to The National, the UAE's IPTV market will not extend to triple play services, which will curtail true competition in the provision of IPTV by telcos Etisalat and du this year.

Operators Etisalat and du, currently offer triple play packages for fixed line telephony, internet and IPTV in non-competing areas of the Emirates. However in December, fibre-based services of both are due to open up to all customers across the UAE. All except Etisalat’s E-Life and du’s duTV IPTV offerings, it would seem.

Read more.
 

According to Gulf News, telecom regulators in the UAE are singing the praises of social media to be developed and encouraged as critical tools for community building and open dialogue in the country.  Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said yesterday it is advocating social media sites for the betterment of the UAE’s social and business community.

“Social media can be defined as an established and evolving channel that needs to be part of overall communications and cap-acity-building strategies,” said Mohammad Nasser Al Ganem, TRA Director-General. “

Read more.

Maktoob Business has reported that according to Dubai’s daily Emarat Al-Yom, there hasn’t been any progress concerning negotiations with RIM on allowing the UAE to access encrypted BlackBerry data. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority will proceed with the suspension of Blackberry services announced in August unless a solution is reached and is fully compliant with legislation on telecommunications in the country.

Read more.
 

Arabian Business reports that following the decision made on August 1st by UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) on suspending BlackBerry services, both TRA and Research In Motion (RIM) have been discussing the issue and trying to reach a solution that serves both parties and comply with the UAE’s national security laws. Both Saudi Arabia and India have terminated the ban decision after RIM has agreed to provide an automated solution for tracking BlackBerry smartphone messages.

Read more.
 

Gulf News reports that UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and Research in Motion (RIM) have been working together to resolve serious social, judicial and national security issues with BlackBerry’s messaging service, following TRA’s claim that BlackBerry is currently the only device "that immediately exports its data offshore and is managed by a foreign, commercial organization". The TRA reported it has no plans to stop messaging services for BlackBerry smartphones.

This is not the first time the BlackBerry has been the target of security concerns in the UAE. Last year, etisalat brought out what they called an "update" for BlackBerry users in the UAE. The update reportedly gave the TRA the ability to monitor emails on the device. However, users said the update affected the handset's ability to work properly, resulting in a backlash.
 

Read more.