The UAE Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has renewed the public telecommunications licences of e& and du for another 20 years, extending their operating framework from 9 August 2026 until 8 August 2046.
The renewed licences replace those issued in 2006 and establish a long-term regulatory framework covering network resilience, service quality, competition, subscriber protection and the development of future telecommunications infrastructure.
TDRA said the extended licensing period is intended to provide the stability required for continued investment in digital infrastructure and emerging technologies as the UAE moves toward more intelligent and autonomous networks.
New licences set 20-year framework for telecom investment
The licences apply to Emirates Telecommunications Group Company PJSC, known as e&, and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC, which operates under the du brand.
By extending both licences through 2046, TDRA is providing the UAE telecom sector with a regulatory horizon spanning two decades.
The authority said this longer-term framework is intended to support sustained investment as telecommunications networks increasingly underpin government services, healthcare, finance, education, energy, transport, industry and digital commerce.
The renewal also reflects how the sector has evolved since the original licences were issued in 2006, moving beyond conventional voice and connectivity services toward a broader role in national digital infrastructure.
Network resilience becomes a core regulatory requirement
The renewed licences place greater emphasis on resilience and continuity.
According to TDRA, e& and du will be required to geographically diversify international connectivity using multiple terrestrial systems and submarine cables, while reducing single points of failure.
The operators must also implement and regularly test disaster recovery mechanisms and develop qualified national talent capable of operating and restoring networks during exceptional circumstances.
Other obligations cover backup capacity, international connectivity, quality of service, interconnection and access, national roaming, universal service, subscriber protection and measures to prevent anti-competitive practices.
The additions indicate that resilience is becoming a central regulatory priority as telecom infrastructure takes on a more critical role across the economy.
UAE targets shift from connected to intelligent networks
TDRA also linked the licence renewal to the expected evolution of telecom networks toward greater automation and intelligence.
Talal Belhoul, chairman of TDRA, said artificial intelligence is expected to become an integral part of network operations as the sector gradually moves from connected networks toward intelligent and autonomous ones.
This transition could include greater use of AI for network optimisation, fault prediction, traffic management, energy efficiency and automated service assurance.
The regulator framed this evolution as part of the UAE’s wider digital economy ambitions.
The country’s Digital Economy Strategy aims to double the digital economy’s contribution to GDP from 9.7% in 2022 to 19.4% over the following decade.
Fibre penetration reaches 99.7%
The licence renewal comes as the UAE continues to rank among the world’s most advanced fixed broadband markets.
TDRA said the UAE has ranked first globally in fibre-to-the-home penetration for the tenth consecutive year, with penetration reaching 99.7%.
That level of fibre availability provides a strong infrastructure base for cloud services, smart-city applications, digital government platforms and increasingly data-intensive enterprise and consumer services.
Majed Sultan Al Mesmar, director-general of TDRA, said the renewed licences are intended to support a new phase in which connectivity increasingly becomes a platform for innovation and economic growth.
Why this matters
The significance of the renewal extends beyond allowing e& and du to continue operating for another 20 years.
The new licences embed resilience, redundancy, international connectivity and service obligations more deeply into the UAE’s telecom framework, reflecting the sector’s transformation into critical national infrastructure.
The long duration also gives both operators greater regulatory visibility as they invest in technologies that may define the next phase of connectivity, including AI-driven network operations, advanced 5G capabilities and future-generation network architectures.
Editor’s note
The most important shift in the renewed licences is the move from regulating telecom primarily as a communications service toward regulating it as strategic national infrastructure.
Requirements around submarine cable diversity, disaster recovery, backup capacity and the removal of single points of failure show that network resilience is becoming just as important as speed and coverage.
At the same time, TDRA’s emphasis on intelligent and autonomous networks suggests that the next stage of competition in the UAE telecom market may increasingly centre on how effectively operators use AI to run, secure and optimise their infrastructure, not simply on how much connectivity they can provide.
