The SIM card will last for 30 days or duration of the tourist's stay.

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA-Dubai) in partnership with du (Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, EITC) and Smart Dubai launched the initiative of giving all tourists entering Dubai free pre-paid mobile SIM cards.

All tourists 18 and above will receive the free 'tourist SIM pack' at the immigration counter.

The SIM card will provide the tourist three-minute talk time and 20MB mobile data for free. The SIM card will last for 30 days or duration of the tourist's stay. In the case of a tourist becoming a resident, there are no systems yet set up for the number to be converted into a permanent one.

According to authorities the SIM can be topped up with three packages – small, medium and large.

The project is part of the ongoing initiative of Dubai Happiness Agenda, added authorities.

Emirates Investment Authority, EIA, has increased its stake in Dubai-based firm Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, du, reports WAM.

The UAE sovereign wealth fund acquired 463.263 million shares from Mamoura Diversified Global Holding PJSC and General Investments FZE in a special deal. This latest move represents nearly 10.22 per cent of du's issued share capital.

Recently du announced that Smart Dubai has endorsed the telco’s Blockchain Platform as a Service, BPaaS.

Adding to a growing list of use cases, du is providing the platform to facilitate The Dubai Blockchain Strategy by giving all government entities the freedom to build on a framework of their choice (Ethereum or Hyperledger) based on their business needs on a fully managed, scalable and secure platform with low-cost access through a pay as you go model.

du will be providing Smart Dubai with the Blockchain Platform as a Service, which is a cloud native blockchain infrastructure that can provision a private blockchain networks on Ethereum and Hyperledger fabric frameworks.

Providing a shared environment for POCs, pilots, and production systems, including shared infrastructure and platform monitoring, which will give users the ability to create blockchain networks, deploy and run their use cases, without much knowledge of blockchain networks configuration and DevOps.

This will enable all government entities to transform their current and future activities with the goal of making them digital by the year 2021, in support of Crown Prince of Dubai Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's paperless vision. The blockchain initiative by Smart Dubai also supports the objective of making the Dubai the smartest and happiest city on Earth.