Fifty years after it was set up to connect the emirates, the UAE's biggest telecom group is taking back the name it started with. The company known since 2022 as e& will be called Etisalat again, it confirmed in a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on 6 October 2026.
The filing itself was brief. The group said Etisalat is the name it is taking forward, one that "reflects our heritage, our strategy and our ambition for the AI era." An open letter published for the anniversary ended on a line written for customers rather than investors: "We are etisalat. We always have been. We always will be."
From Etisalat to e& and back again
Etisalat, which means connection in Arabic, was founded in 1976. On 23 February 2022, the group swapped that name for e&, a shorter brand built to show it was more than a phone company. Management wanted it seen as a global technology and investment group, with telecoms as one business among several.
Later that year, the UAE operator became etisalat by e&, and the Egyptian arm followed, giving up the green logo customers there had known for years. At group level, the e& name lasted four years and seven months.
A much bigger company than in 2022
Etisalat returns at the head of a far larger business. In the second quarter of 2026, revenue rose about 9% to Dh19.2 billion ($5.2 billion), and the customer base grew 30.4% to 251.5 million.
Most of those customers live outside the UAE. Around 235 million sit in international operations, including Maroc Telecom, e& PPF Telecom, the Egyptian business and PTCL Group in Pakistan. The home market accounts for 16.5 million subscribers, up 6.4% on a year earlier.
Its portfolio has been changing too. In July 2026, the group completed the sale of its entire stake in Vodafone Group, bringing in Dh21.9 billion in cash.
A 500 Tbps bet for 2030
Alongside the name, the group set a network target: more than 500 terabits per second of international connectivity by 2030, about 25 times its current capacity. International capacity is the bandwidth that carries traffic between the UAE and the rest of the world, so more of it means faster links for cloud services, streaming and AI workloads.
Details still missing
Several practical questions have no answer yet. After the announcement, the group website still listed units such as e& International and e& Capital under the old brand, Telecoms.com reported. The company has not said when shop signs and apps will change, whether those unit names will be updated, or whether customers will see any difference in their plans or bills.
Shareholders got the news first, through the 6 October filing. Customers are still waiting on the rest.
