iPhone iMoan
Unsurprisingly, since it didn't get the first model nor is there even an official Apple presence here, the UAE is not getting the 3G iPhone. More surprisingly, in fact absolutely absurd to the point of wanting to gouge ones own brain out with a rusty spork after reading it, is the TRA's claim that it is rejecting the iPhone, rather than Steve Jobs not giving the first toss about them (or probably even knowing the UAE exists):
Dubai: The iPhone will not see an official UAE launch as long as it wants to be made available through one telecom operator exclusively, an official at the Telecoms Regulatory Authority has said.
An exclusivity contract for the iPhone that etisalat was seeking has been rejected by the TRA, Gulf News has learned.
The spokesperson for the TRA, Rasheed Joumblatt, refused to confirm this but warned that all exclusivity contracts will be rejected "regardless of which operator applies".
Yes, it's the admirable Rasheed Joumblatt, that melodious mouthpiece-of-Al Ghanem who was educated at the American University but just can't get his head around the concept of freedom of speech. Or simple facts. Or the truth. A reality check for Mr Joumblatt:
1. Apple is not insisting on single operator exclusivity contracts. In many counties it is offered through multiple operators.
2. The UAE had one of the worst monopoly telco sectors in the world. It now has a duopoly so monopolistic in nature that it may as well be a conjoined twin. Both du and etishite are owned and misrun by the Federal government.
But hey, at least one person is thrilled by Mr Joumblatt's valiant stance - Aboud from Abu Dhabi: "Bravo UAE for not agreeing to Apple's terms."
Comments
Dubai: The iPhone will not see an official UAE launch as long as it wants to be made available through one telecom operator exclusively, an official at the Telecoms Regulatory Authority has said.
An exclusivity contract for the iPhone that etisalat was seeking has been rejected by the TRA, Gulf News has learned.
The spokesperson for the TRA, Rasheed Joumblatt, refused to confirm this but warned that all exclusivity contracts will be rejected "regardless of which operator applies".
Yes, it's the admirable Rasheed Joumblatt, that melodious mouthpiece-of-Al Ghanem who was educated at the American University but just can't get his head around the concept of freedom of speech. Or simple facts. Or the truth. A reality check for Mr Joumblatt:
1. Apple is not insisting on single operator exclusivity contracts. In many counties it is offered through multiple operators.
2. The UAE had one of the worst monopoly telco sectors in the world. It now has a duopoly so monopolistic in nature that it may as well be a conjoined twin. Both du and etishite are owned and misrun by the Federal government.
But hey, at least one person is thrilled by Mr Joumblatt's valiant stance - Aboud from Abu Dhabi: "Bravo UAE for not agreeing to Apple's terms."
Comments
32 Comments:
Hate to stereotype, but "Rasheed Jumblatt" sounds a typical Baathist, well-honed flowery rhetoric, support for censorship, and being delusionla. If it was a UAE National making these statements it wouldnt feel so bad, but a "Rasheed Jumblatt???" !
Absolutely fabulous. It's nice to see anti-monopoly rules introduced to support duopoly, and this is in the country that has the toughest most monopolistic business rules in the World and the most crippling laws that protect exclusive agents of automobiles, fashion brands, electronics AND MOBILE PHONES.
There's something else underneath this going on.
I believe he's Lebanese, but I could be wrong. I feel slightly bad blogging his full name, because he'll possibly get a high ranking Google hit from this blog (I've removed people's names in the past because of that, because I felt it was unfair on them) but in his case, he deserves it.
Anyone who goes through a western education then sells out and spouts the kind of shit he does deserves a wake up call. It disgusts me. I don't believe for a moment that he genuinely personally believes in any of the statements he makes, but to so blatantly take the oily dollar and prostitute your intellect is just sickening to me. Why not just attribute everything to Al Ghanem? Much easier and more face-saving in the long term.
If and when he quits the TRA and does something more worthwhile, I'll probably take his name off here and replace it with "TRA spokesperson", to clean up his Google results for him.
Odd, this is. I believe when the iPhone was first launched in the US, you could only get it through Sprint. But surely the phone shops can sell this baby without it being tied to a particular notwork?
You can only buy an iPhone from AT&T in the US, O2 in the UK, France Telecom/Orange in France. They are covered by exclusivity agreements everywhere.
However, there is a large and well-documented gap between the numbers of iPhones Apple shipped and those activated on partner networks, thought to consist of those devices that were jailbroken and resold on the black market.
Yeah well, let everybody continue squabbling. That way, the iHack elite (George Hotz, Jibri &, FSJ) continue to make hay while the sun shines!
Ok, so the UAe looses out on a phantastic piece of progress, usability and technology. Just because we want to protect a few mobile phone distributers.
Sounds cool to me. Daddy UAE is protecting you from all the bad competition and the customers have to pay nice overpriced prices (like Nokia N800 1800 AED, while it is not even available in the rest of the world anymore, where the successor N810 is sold for less thatn the n800 here)...
Our electronics are exactly the same price as in Europe where countries have 20% VAT. Go figure who pockets that...
Nothing to do with this story, but yet another piece of UAE lore, or in this case reality!
Driving through Zabeel earlier I spotted signs to "Makhtoum Weddings", note the plural.
Would those people who received an invitation saying "park in Car Park F", really feel that they were part of one gigantic family.
Oh to have received an "A" invite, so I would be parking in covered parking at the Exhibition Center.
Will the "Maktoum Weddings" receive full press coverage or just a few photos of the male partticipants?
Good for them, Who needs another expensive and utterly useless and toy anyway??
a gadget that is inferior on every level its browsing speed is slower than my 4 year old laptop, its camera is inferior than a cheap point and shoot, its battery life barely passes the 3 hours mark. the screen smudges after the slightest touch...
Ex-iPhone Owner
Off topic, but its informative and entertaining :)
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5267640865741878159&ei=k0w9SKKLLZCEjgLCv-mwCQ&hl=en
Copy paste it into your browsers!
Anonymous @ 11:39- You have a very smart mind.I agree!! Smart!
Anonymous@ 15:00- Double Wedding, Male Participants, which Maktoums are you referring to? Oh no!
"Anyone who goes through a western education then sells out and spouts the kind of shit he does deserves a wake up call."
I think he should do exactly what the white man usually does:
Create an absolutist monopoly, install a puppet government, overtake the country's resources and force the population to buy that white fuckers' gadgetry and rotten/chemically overridden food stocks.
It all gives some food for thought; why is it that the people who a)live in your "Western" culture the longest, or
b) have close contact with your kind
...end up hating you the most?
Western education my ass!!!
This comment has been removed by the author.
There is some truth to TRA's story though. In France, when the iPhone was first launched, one can get it for the $399 from Orange - true .. and that only happened becuse French regulators, being the socialist fanatics they are, only allowed it after Apple agreed to offer the device unlocked and fully supported to the entire market, but for for $1000. (I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago)
You see, the only way Apple could afford to sell the new 3G for price low as $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB) is with strings attached.
Things like talk packeges & contracts (unkown here in UAE but already populer and common in Eygpt and Jordan) OR, a revenue sharing model with the service provider - Something that Qtel agreed becuase... ermm.. there is no one else but QTEL in Qatar.
Good I moved back to India. We can buy the jail broken iphone in the black market for Dhs 2000. What's more they even have unofficial repair centers. Its a great phone with plenty of third party free software.
sorry off topic, but while we debate apple & jumblatt, not to forget he is a white collar in UAE, a land of slave labour.a sponsor who brings you in is your owner, and will keep your passport till he sends you back.and forget changing jobs. see below from khaleej times:
Woman fined Dh 50,000 for hiring absconder
(Mary Nammour)
16 June 2008
Print Print Article E-mail Send to A Friend
DUBAI - The Immigration Court sentenced a Chinese woman to a fine of Dh50, 000 for hiring an Indian who was not on her sponsorship.
The court also sentenced the original sponsor of the Indian, an Emirati woman, to the same amount of fine for not reporting about her domestic worker who had absconded.
The Indian domestic worker was sentenced to two months in jail followed by deportation for working for a person other than his sponsor.
The Chinese woman, who is 52, was running a shop at the Dragon Mart.
I think we all had a good laugh when we read the story. TRA complaining about a monopoly? Oh dear. I am tired of all of the hypocrisy and us and them rules and other double standards. I'm happy to be home for the summer where I can read any blog I choose and sign up for any complicated mobile phone contract I like. And it's not ugly and dirty outside. Nor are there wretched souls wandering around with empty litre bottles looking for somewhere to fill them. Or people walking in the streets because cars are parked on the sidewalk. And my neighbors here don't keep farm animals who crow all hours of the day and night and come into my garden and shit everywhere.
I could go on but instead will enjoy the bliss of being out and not think about it again until I have to. Happy summer to all. Wishing you all a break from the madness that has become Dubai.
:)
Dubai has enough of a grey market for handsets that it's likely you'll be able to get iPhone 3Gs imported from Spain (where no contract is needed), at the cost of manufacturer's warranty and technical support.
You probably can, already. Head for Naif Square in Deira, where there's a large market in handsets, both from authorized distributors and parallel imports.
quote:"Aboud from Abu Dhabi: "Bravo UAE for not agreeing to Apple's terms.""
L-O-Ls...what a cracker :)
UAE lags behind in technology. The third world country that I come from (SriLanka) had introduced mobile TV ages ago.
The Indians/Sri Lankans could build the friggin Death Star if they wanted to...looool
for those of you who are thinking of buying a iPhone! what you need to do is decide what you want most; the iPod features or the ability to send an sms easily! the touch-screen keyboard is very small and workable for a 6 year olds only.
if you have never used a touch-screen keyboard then i suggest you try it out before you fork out for a iPhone.
this of course is not directed at apple owners like me. no! i still refuse to buy an iphone!
Don't we need an exclusive contract with a monthly pay plan by Etisalat for using BlackBerry here? Then why Iphone is being singled out? It is not apparently what it is being told. I own a jailbroken iphone and it is working perfectly and I really enjoy having one. No regrets.
I think the lock/unlock discussion is soon a thing of the past.
Actually there are countries where the TRA has a similar opinion about exclusivity. The iPhone 3g is available in belgium and Switzerland. off course you have to purchase it through a specific subscriber ( www.mobistar.be for Belgium) but because of local regulations the provider can not attach a contract to the deal. This means that the iPhones are unlocked and fully working and can thus be exported ( and used) to the UAE or wherever in the Gulf.
Engadget has this to say about hairline cracks in case anybody wants to shell out US$ 2K on an iP 3G.
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