The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the UAE, has acquired rights to 225 digital channels at the recently concluded ITU Regional Radio Communication Conference (RRC) held in Geneva from May 15th – June 16th, 2006. Tariq Abdulkarim Al Awadhi, Director of Spectrum Management, chaired the UAE's delegation attending the conference, which comprised of members from the TRA, Emirates Media, Dubai Media, and Sharjah TV.
The month-long conference was aimed at facilitating the transition from analogue media broadcasting to digital. The conference organised channel allocation among participating countries, based on a newly formulated digital terrestrial TV broadcasting plan.
Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director General of the TRA said, "The UAE team has acquired 225 digital terrestrial TV channels out of the 236 present in the UHF and VHF bands. The TRA has authority on these channels, and we will soon issue regulatory lists to start giving licenses for channels use.”
“The UAE will undergo tremendous change and growth in the field of TV and radio transmission in the coming few years so that people can watch the terrestrial channels' TV programs either at home or through their PDAs . In order to accelerate and facilitate the change, TRA is putting in place regulations that are in line with international guidelines in the field,” Al Ghanim added.
Al Awadhi said, "The team representing the UAE has acquired 225 digital channels, whish is around 95.3% of the 236 digital channels it had initially requested from the ITU. And the reason why the TRA did not get them all is that the rest of the channels might interfere with the neighboring countries. We are now preparing a list of regulations to start licensing and using these digital channels in the country. The UAE team has gained broad-based experience through its presence at the conference, and it fully participated in negotiation sessions for channel allocation and discussions aimed at improving the new treaty. The team also has contributed to the coordination procedures with the neighboring countries in order to gain the maximum number of regionally designated digital channels.”
Percentage Number of channels Country
95.3% 225 UAE
87.3% 55 Bahrain
98.1% 1195 KSA
100% 65 Qatar
100% 1156 Oman
78.3% 47 Kuwait
87% 690 Iraq
99.5% 977 Republic of Yemen
96.4% 2241 Islamic Republic of Iran
At the conference, the UAE acquired several leading positions in the conference, and assumed responsibility for chairing one of the negotiating teams, vice-chairing the special team for a new regional treaty and also vice-chairing a special team dedicated to revising the previous agreement.
Prior to the conference, the TRA had organized several local preparatory meetings to reschedule UAE's digital broadcasting channels in the 174-230 MHZ and 470-862 MHZ frequency bands through advanced software programs used for regulating the broadcasting spectrum according to digital maps of the country. The TRA also organized regional congresses with neighboring countries (GCC, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, and the Republic of Yemen) to ensure a united front on broadcasting.
The UAE is expected to transit to digital terrestrial broadcasting system within two years as part of an overall strategy to enhance the telecommunications sector in the country, and the TRA will be in charge of ensuring a smooth and successful transition to the new broadcasting paradigm.
A key issue at the conference was the protection of analogue terrestrial broadcasting from digital interference until the year 2015 to ease the transition between the technologies. All conference participants signed a new treaty outlining terrestrial TV channels provision.
About the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority:
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority “TRA” is an independent public authority established under Federal Decree by Law No.3 of 2003. The Authority has an independent legal, financial and administrative personality.
The TRA is the competent body to oversee the telecommunications sector and all Licensees of the UAE. The Authority serves as the executive arm to the Supreme Committee for the supervision of the telecommunications sector. The TRA ensures the telecom services are available to all and meet the quality standards.
The TRA has sole powers to issue regulations, orders, resolutions and procedures in relation to all aspects of the licensed operators, radio frequency authorizations, equipment and apparatus approvals, specifications and importation, orbital and numbering resource management, and standards.
