Overseas prepaid SIM introduction manual ── "United Arab Emirates, Dubai 2012" edition: "Six unexpected enjoyments" Overseas flat-rate data communication (1/3 page)

Communication situation in Dubai, the largest city-state in the UAE

Dubai is also the center of finance and trade in the Middle East. It is one of the emirates belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi, but Dubai is the largest UAE city with a population of over 2 million.

Dubai International Airport, located there, is connected to cities around the world, and Dubai is also a relay hub for Asia, Europe and Africa. Dubai International Airport has many shops in consideration of transit passengers, so shopping between transits is not a problem. Of course, there is also a mobile phone counter, and SIM lock-free smartphones are also on sale.

By the way, UAE's prepaid SIM situation was posted in "Abu Dhabi" in June 2011, but this time let's purchase a prepaid SIM and a data terminal in Dubai. The exchange rate is about 21.6 yen for 1AED (dirham) as of October 2012. Since it is a tourist country, credit cards can be used normally in the city, and shopping is easy.

Dubai has a subway running in the city and is directly connected to the airport. IC card tickets are also on sale, so you can get on and off smoothly if you use them. The official language of the UAE is Arabic, but basically English can be used anywhere.

There are many large shopping malls in the city. Depending on the store, you may walk a little from the station, so I would like to make effective use of the taxi for the first ride of 3 dirhams (about 60 yen in Japanese yen as of October 2012, the same applies below). Food and daily necessities are also relatively cheap, and soft drinks purchased at convenience stores at stations cost less than 100 yen. Aside from high-end restaurants, fast food restaurants are also relatively reasonable.

Dubai, like Abu Dhabi, has two carriers, Etisalat and du. Both companies have started LTE 4G services in addition to W-CDMA 3G services. However, LTE prepaid products were not yet sold at the time of the interview, and were a postpaid service for local users.

Prepaid SIMs that support 3G are sold at the sales offices of both companies in the city, as well as at supermarkets. Of course, there is also a window at Dubai International Airport, so you can buy it immediately after arrival. At Airport Terminal 1, you will find a sales counter in the middle of the exit from customs, and at Terminal 3, go straight through customs and go straight. Career shops in the city can be very crowded (though it seems that it happened this time). This will be described later, but this congestion may affect various things later, so I think it's better to make some time at the airport to buy it, even if it's a little overwhelming.

By the way, regarding data communication with prepaid SIM in UAE, it is a mechanism to first purchase a prepaid SIM card and then additionally register a data plan to use it. Some products include some free data usage (balance) in advance. Of the ones I bought this time, Etisalat's prepaid SIM card did not use free data, but du's included 50 Mbytes. This area should be confirmed at the time of purchase. The types of data packages to be added and the charges are as follows.