The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has finalized receiving submissions for acquiring a license for broadcast Mobile TV service in the UAE on 31 December 2008.

The process of the licensing started with the TRA holding a public consultation during June 2008. On 17 June 2008, a briefing was held on the draft invitation document in Abu Dhabi, where a public invitation was announced in all UAE newspapers.

Many interested parties attended the Briefing and used the opportunity to clarify issues and get better understanding of the draft invitation document and the TRA objectives. When consultation closed on 26 June 2008, responses were received from 9 different organizations.

Considering the feedback carefully, the TRA made changes to the draft invitation document where necessary, and published a report on the consultation and the final Invitation to Submit Proposals for the Provision of Mobile TV Transmission Service in the UAE.

H.E. Mohamed Al Ghanim, TRA Director General, said: "The applicants were not limited to companies having telecom licenses. Any entity fulfilling the criteria set out in the document was welcomed to put in a proposal." This new Mobile TV service is provided through a different technology than the 3G streaming already available, and will offer a wider selection of channels at better quality.

Following the consultation process with the feedback that resulted in making changes on the draft invitation document, the TRA invited interested persons and companies to submit bids for this new license as part of its strategy endorsing the concept of transparency. The invitation was campaigned for weeks in UAE and GCC leading newspapers and an official press release was launched locally, regionally and globally, in several languages.

Mr. Al Ghanim added: "The TRA will study and evaluate the submitted proposals to assess if they were in line with the requirements of the invitation. We expect the outcome to be before the end of next March."

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