Freeing your Wi-Fi

Analysis

As people become more and more attached to their smart phones and tablets, your customers have come to expect to have free wireless internet connectivity when they are visiting your business premises - whether those premises are a cafe, hotel, restaurant or ordinary commercial premises.

Businesses offering Wi-Fi in the UAE need to be aware that the usage has to comply with certain requirements under regulations that were issued by the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (“TRA”) in 2009.

“Wi-Fi” is a wireless local area network (“WLAN”) technology that allows an electronic device to connect to the internet using 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio spectrum frequency bands.

Strictly “Wi-Fi “ refers to WLAN products based on a particular family of technical standards (i.e. IEEE 82.11) but the term “Wi-Fi” has become more commonly used than “WLAN” since most WLAN are based on the Wi-Fi standards.

Under Federal Law by Decree No.3 of 2003 Regarding Organisation of Telecommunications Sector, as amended (“Telecoms Law”) the establishment and use of wireless transmission stations and the installation and use of any wireless transmission is expressly prohibited unless permitted by a radio spectrum authorization issued by the TRA.