Fifty years of etisalat

In 1976, a young country set out to connect its emirates to one another and to the world. We were founded for that purpose, with a name that, at its root, means to connect.

From the first lines stretched across the desert to the region’s first mobile network, from bringing the internet to the UAE to making it one of the most fibre-connected nations on earth, we’ve spent five decades making the next thing possible. First at home, then in every market we’ve grown into.

But the story was never really about networks. It was about what you did with them. You called home and it felt closer. You built businesses, studied, worked, paid, streamed and shared. You watched your children grow up on a screen when you couldn’t be there. And when it mattered most, through a pandemic that moved a whole country online, through rain and floods, you stayed close to the people who count.

We built the network. You gave it meaning.

Today our home nation stands as an example to the world, stepping into an era of intelligence built on connectivity. We will grow alongside it, as we always have. So, as we begin our next fifty, we do it under the name we started with, the name you’ve trusted for five decades.

We are etisalat. We always have been. We always will be.

To every one of you who has trusted us, used what we built, and made it matter: thank you. To the partners who built with us and the teams who kept the country safely and reliably connected: Thank you.

The next fifty are yours.