Etisalat, a leading telecom operator in the Middle East and Africa, has won the industry award as the ‘Overall Operator of the Year’ at the recent CommsMEA Awards 2013 in Dubai.

The annual award was presented to the operator that has managed to stand out from all the rest, either in a specific field or across a number of disciplines. The judging criteria focused on numerous aspects of businesses, including growth, financials, innovation and quality of service.

The eighth edition of the annual CommsMEA awards and acknowledges operators and individuals who have taken a leadership role in the region’s fast growing and rapidly changing telecoms sector.

This achievement was possible mainly due to the huge investment in setting up the network made by Etisalat UAE which exceeded Dh19 billion ($5.17 billion). Etisalat has also pioneered mobile services in the UAE including the first 3G, 3.5G, 3.75G and 4G services in the region. The operator is credited with building the UAE’s first and the region’s widest 4G LTE network. Etisalat successfully tested the world’s fastest speed of 300Mbps over its 4G LTE network.

Saleh Al Abdooli, Etisalat CEO, said: "Etisalat has always been at the forefront of providing customers with the latest services and technologies. There is always an effort to provide a number of unique benefits to customers and businesses alike through the provision of an advanced and scalable network, reliability, and best customer service along with faster response time.”

“The award recognises these efforts and is well deserved for the successes achieved this year. This was all possible due to our dedicated team and partners helping us to deliver highest quality, innovative services and technologies, making UAE one of the most connected countries in the world,” he added.

Roger Field, editor, CommsMEA said: “Etisalat continued to achieve growth in its home market in the face of tough competition by launching a raft of offers to increase uptake of services, from IPTV packages to mobile broadband and business packages. It also invested in its network and successfully completed testing voice over LTE earlier in the year, allowing it to launch HD-quality voice services.” – TradeArabia News Service