Does your phone network say ‘Etisalat 50’? Here’s why…

e& users, did you pick up your phone today and notice that your phone network says ‘Etisalat 50’? Well, it’s because the UAE’s first mobile network provider is marking its 50 years of service. Previously, the network provider was called ‘Etisalat’ – an Arabic word meaning “communications” or “connections”. On Feb 2022, it rebranded to e& to signal its major transformation from a traditional regional telecom operator into a global technology and investment conglomerate. A post shared by etisalat UAE (@eanduae) In a post on the phone network’s official Instagram, it stated, ‘For 50 years, Etisalat has grown alongside the UAE. As we begin our next 50, we do it under the name where it all started. We are Etisalat. We always have been. We always will be.’ * Nostalgia Lane: 20 Dubai snacks that ruled our childhoods * The post that accompanied the caption also shared a look back on the phone network’s journey. ‘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 roots, means to connect’. It shared its growth ‘from the first lines (that) 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’. Etisalat ‘spent decades making the next thing possible. First at home, then in every market we’ve grown into.’