UAE, with a coverage of 93.7 per cent, has topped the global list of countries with the highest Fiber to the Home (FTTH) penetration for 2016, according to top industry body FTTH Council.
The emirates was shortlisted in the category of countries with a FTTH penetration of over 40 per cent. There were 11 countries in this category, stated the council.
It is a major boost to UAE telco giant Etisalat which has invested Dh28 billion ($7.62 billion) for building the network infrastructure.
The UAE with a coverage of 93.7 per cent emerged winners beating countries such as Qatar (87.9 per cent), Singapore (85.4 per cent), South Korea (79.8 per cent), Hong Kong (73.7 per cent) and Japan (53.9 per cent).
Saleh Al Abdooli, the chief executive of Etisalat Group, said: "This achievement was only possible due to the long term vision of the UAE leadership of development and modernisation. Etisalat has worked in line with its strategy to boost the network infrastructure."
"This has led to the launch of innovative services meeting the growing demand and changing requirements of our customers across the country and making the capital the first city globally to be covered with a fiber optic network," he added.
Al Abdooli said with network enhancement and expansion, Etisalat has also focused on investing in innovation and next generation technologies and services.
"This is in line to provide the best customer experience to our subscriber base and position our UAE leadership on a global map in the ICT sector as well as other sectors," he noted.
Etisalat eLife customers now experience a high speed network at 1GBps enjoying the best in entertainment due to exclusive partnerships with leading TV entertainment international providers. eLife TV also includes the country’s widest portfolio of on-demand movies and TV series with 150 TV channels in High Definition, he added.