Mohamed Al Ghanim: The Survey Is Most Intensive Survey in the History of the UAE

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority TRA has conducted a comprehensive survey to measure the accessibility and the usage of the ICT in the UAE, The survey, which lasted for six months and covered seven vital sectors considered the biggest of its kind in the UAE history.

Given the importance of the role played by the telecom sector and its relevance to many economic, educational and social activities, The TRA decided that the survey covers seven sectors: households, Private Sector, Education Establishments, Higher Education Establishments, Government, ICT Business Sector and Public Internet Access Center Establishment (PIAC).

Mohamed Al Ghanim, TRA Director General said: “the survey results provide a realistic picture of the development achieved in ICT sector during the recent years. The latest international methods and technologies had been used while conducting the survey to ensure the maximum degree of credibility.”

Prior to the survey and in order to identify, minimize and correct errors, variety of quality control measures was applied by the TRA while collecting the data. The first phase paid attention to the wording and the meaning of the survey questions, making it simple and direct. The sample sizes were estimated using proportional allocations, with an error margin of 3% and a confidence level of 95%. During The second phase- Field Research- the “face-to-face interview was the primary mode used in the survey followed by telephone calls to ensure the data validation and to confirm that the field researchers had conducted the survey with the right respondents.

The findings of the survey provide accurate information concerning the participation of the ICT sector with the seven sectors, which were covered by the survey. One of the benefits of the survey is that it will allow TRA to measure the status of the UAE in terms of the 48 ICT “core indicators” that have been developed and agreed by international organizations including the ITU, OECD, world bank and UNCTAD. From these 48 core indicators, the survey data included 33; meanwhile the TRA is conducting separate exercises to collect information for the remaining 15 indicators. The only missing indicators in the survey are the macroeconomic items, which were not available, at the time of conducting the survey, by the UAE sources.    

The survey is divided into 9 chapters; the first seven chapters are dedicated for the chosen sectors, while the eighth chapter contains a benchmark and finally the ninth chapter explains the methodology that has been followed while conducting the survey.

The survey does not only provide statistical information about the ICT sector’s performance, it also offers a comprehensive benchmark with many countries from all over the globe, using the survey data combined with other information collected by the TRA from the industry in the UAE.  This benchmarking aims to measure the development achieved in the UAE ICT compared with other countries, TRA chose number of regions across the world for analysis. The selected regions were the Arab states, Europe, North America and Asia.

Using 10 commonly ICT indicators in the benchmarking the UAE came first among the Arab countries, while it compares relative positively on an international scale, some progress is still needed to be equivalent with the leading ICT countries. The UAE ranks first among all the benchmarked countries in mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants, the proportion between households with mobile telephony. The UAE performs also well in the percentage of homes with internet and percentage of with personal computer.

The result of the benchmark reflected the progress achieved in the ICT infrastructure and growth in the UAE, as well as the potentials of this sector, the UAE will be able to reach comparable levels with those achieved by the currently top ranking countries.

To view the Survey, please click here