Etisalat UAE - Telecom. Each cloned SIM card will cost you AED 25* per month. When subscribing to Multi SIM you must replace your primary SIM card with new Multi SIM card. Replacement is don. Quick Registration offers a special promotion for our valued customers – with every purchase of minimum 5AED they can receive a free Etisalat “Wasel” SIM Card or Etisalat prepaid “Five” SIM Card. More information about Five SIM Card available here.

Contents [] Basics The United Arab Emirates have two network providers: • etisalat • du The first MVNO Virgin Mobile launched on the du network in 2017. Etisalat or du? Both of them are partly state-owned. Etisalat is the biggest provider in the UAE with 13 million users, but used to be focused more to local and landline customers. Rival Du, now at 9 million customers, filled the gap and aimed at the many migrant workers, prepaid clients and tourists. Nowadays, both are pretty much on par what speeds and coverage are concerned.

Etisalat quickly opened up stores in tourist areas and now competes with Du for prepaid plans. The country remains nevertheless a duopoly with two state-protected providers. Frequencies 2G is on 900 and 1800 MHz, 3G on 2100 MHz up to DC-HSPA+.

4G/LTE is on 1800 MHz (B3) and 800 MHz (B20). The coverage of both operators is very good in the cities, populated areas and along the desert highways on 2G, 3G and even 4G/LTE, giving good speed and performance. The first MVNOs or rather subsidiaries started in 2017 with Virgin Mobile on the du network and a new youth brand on etisalat. Availability Both du and etisalat now have shops in the arrival halls of all three terminals at the airport of Dubai as well as in the airport of Abu Dhabi, where you can buy the SIM card right away at arrival without surcharge.

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Often they are side by side. So it's easy to compare plans which are still slightly different between operators. Both are rather expensive compared to other Arab countries, especially when it comes to foreign voice calls. For buying a SIM card you need to show your passport with visa stamp. They will photocopy it in the store and do some paperwork, which can take a while. Outside of the airport etisalat and du are present with own branded stores in the major shopping malls. Both are selling tourist SIM cards with some bonus programs and a rather limited validity and regular prepaid SIM cards.

Often the tourist SIMs are out of stock and you only get a regular plan that can be even cheaper. In small mobile stores in downtown souks and markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi small vendors offer discounted SIM cards and options at less than 50% off the official rates. This can be an option, if you are aware of the local market and prices.

Often they are illegal for various reasons, as they can't be registered on your name and are probably assigned to someone else. So better stay away, if you need a reliable data connection.

To keep a local SIM active outside the UAE, etisalat costs AED 8 per year, whereas du costs AED 10 per year. From 2018 the UAE government has introduced a 5% Value Added Tax (VAT), which applies to all products and services. Etisalat has not included this new tax to its prices, while du has mostly included it. Censorship The UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority instructs ISPs to block various types of websites and services, which therefore cannot be directly accessed, for the following reasons: • Inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political or moral values of the UAE • Competition to state-owned telecoms monopolies (e.g. VoIP services) • Sites with an Israeli.il domain A new 'cybercrime law' introduced in 2016 states that ' Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery, shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine of no less than AED 500,000 and not exceeding AED 2,000,000, or either of these two penalties'. The effect is that it's illegal to use a VPN or proxy server to access blocked websites or services.

The law does not specifically outlaw VPN use, and VPNs are lawfully used for example by employees to access corporate networks. Bear in mind that, although it's impossible for the authorities to detect which websites or services are being accessed via a VPN, many commercial VPNs whose primary purpose is to circumvent blocking are different from those used to access corporate networks. VoIP ban (Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facetime etc.) Most popular VoIP services are blocked too, as Etisalat and Du are the only two operators licensed to provide VoIP services. Snapchat’s new voice and video calling feature was blocked upon its launch in 2016. Similarly, WhatsApp’s voice feature was blocked shortly after it was introduced in 2015. Two months after that, Facebook’s video-calling feature was also blocked. Similar products such as Viber or Apple’s Facetime have been banned since 2013. Skype has been restricted to text messages since 2013, with voice and video calls blocked. Apple agreed to sell its iPhone products in the UAE and Saudi Arabia with the FaceTime functionality omitted.