Dubai Internet City - Connectivity

Connectivity

On 13 April 2008, du (EITC) announced that all of its traffic would be routed via the UAE's censorship proxy which blocks access to any content deemed 'inappropriate'. du had been previously blocking VOIP services.

While Dubai Internet City sells itself as a business-friendly environment with excellent low cost connectivity, the reality is one of a heavily censored internet with prices that are 5-10 times the price of connectivity in Europe or the USA. In addition to webpage censorship, it is speculated that a variety of popular social networking services are blocked. Cheap calls to the UAE are not possible due to a termination charge of around 17p UK, (around 30 US cents) per minute imposed by the UAE phone networks. Internet connectivity in Dubai is expensive; a 0.5mbit home connection costs around 200 AED per month (about 45 USD). The minimum internet connectivity package available for businesses at DIC is a 2mbit connection with a 6GB monthly limit for around 800 AED (180 USD). Bandwidth beyond the 6GB limit is charged at a higher pro-rata rate than the first 6GB.

The UAE proxy can be bypassed by various methods including by setting up a VPN to connect securely to a server in another country to reduce the amount of Internet censorship, with the advantage that UAE authorities cannot 'snoop' on the traffic. While the UAE may block access to the web sites companies providing VPN services, it is possible to arrange overseas accounts. Such options significantly reduce costs as VOIP systems can be used; for companies who require access to services or content that is blocked, VPNs are a necessity.

Around 11.15 AM on January 30, 2008, a ship's anchor apparently severed fibre optic cables between Palermo, Italy, and Alexandria, Egypt. Providers across the Middle East and as far as India and Pakistan were heavily affected with a significant slowdown of communications reported. The UAE telecommunications company and Dubai Internet City's internet service provider du was one of the worst hit, having been completely inoperational for several hours. Since du has a monopoly in the Free Zones, customers had no alternative connectivity during the outage.