GCC WORLDWIDE

Etisalat Presents Eco-Credentials at Global Green Telecom Summit

13 November 2008, Munich Germany and Abu Dhabi, UAE, Etisalat opened the second day of the Global Green Telecom Summit in Munich calling on the telecommunications industry to take the lead in encouraging and supporting their customers to make environmentally-friendly decisions. The Global Green Telecoms Summit is a 2-day conference of the world’s largest operators, organized by Informa Telecoms and Media.

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“Through offering access to information, improving education levels, and sharing business practices, the telecoms industry has a far reaching role to play in helping to conserve the environment,” Mr.Khalid Mattar, Senior Manager Public Relations and Corporate Responsibility said in the keynote opening address.

Etisalat has subsidiaries in 17 countries, employing over 80,000 people and servicing 74 million customers out of a total population of 1.9 billion.

Mr Mattar continued: “At Etisalat we are leading the way in reducing the ecological footprint of our operations by introducing the latest smart technology to mange energy consumption and ensuring our buildings are well insulated to prevent energy loss through air conditioning or heat loss. We are also pioneering the use of alternative green energy and have deployed solar powered facilities across the UAE.”

Etisalat is sharing its expertise in smart homes and smart technologies with its subsidiaries to help bring green business practises across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It is also supporting the UAE government through advising developers on requirements for implementing efficient broadband and smart technologies in their properties.

“Etisalat’s subsidiary UTT is sharing our experience with other developers in the UAE, and will provide a central managed solution on the Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi. This project is due to house over 200,000 people in 300 buildings, which combined will make the UAE’s first smart city and help reduce electricity and energy consumption by between 20-35%[1],” Mattar continued.

Etisalat is deploying an energy efficient fibre optic network across the UAE, which not only requires significantly less energy than older infrastructure, but also opens more opportunities for customers to use greener applications such as video conferencing.

“Telecoms companies must also take into account secondary environmental problems such as pollution caused by transit – either from their staff or customers visiting their premises and promote the use of greener technologies such as broadband and e-services as alternatives to travel,” Mattar said.

Finally Khaled presented Etisalat’s successful mobile recycling campaign Envirofone, which has so far collected 180,000 devices and 140,000 phones, which equates to 12 tons of mobile phones and 10 tons of electronic waste.

“Envirofone has been extremely successful in its first year and we are delighted to announce that the initiative will continue into 2009,” Khaled Mattar explained. Further details of the special activities involved in the second year of Envirofone will be announced shortly