Broadband - Arab world

Increasing adoption of Broadband Internet in the Arab World is set to boost convergence-based services

Arab Advisors Group’s Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2008 to discuss market trends/growth strategies, and the boundaries between media and telecom operators
Under the patronage of HE Eng. Bassem Al Rousan, Jordan’s Minister of ICT, the Fifth Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference, set to take place in Amman on the 2nd and 3rd of June, comes as the Arab World’s telecommunications and broadcast entertainment markets continue to experience strong growth in telecom subscribers and more competition, according to regional research house and conference organizer Arab Advisors Group, a member of the Arab Jordan Investment Bank Group.

By end of 2007, fixed line broadband penetration as a percent of total population ranged from 8% in Qatar to a mere 0.02% in Sudan in the Arab World. Qatar, UAE and Bahrain lead with 8%, 7.8% and 7% respectively. They are followed by Saudi Arabia (2.4%), Jordan (1.6%), Palestine (1.5%), Morocco (1.5%), Tunisia (1.1%), Lebanon (1%), Algeria (0.9%), Oman (0.7%), Egypt (0.6%), Mauritania (around 0.1%), Yemen (0.05%), Syria (0.04%) and Sudan (0.02%).

“While absolute broadband penetration in the Arab World may seem low by industrial countries standards, the effective household broadband penetration is much higher. This is related to higher number of people per household as well as line sharing. For example, a new Arab Advisors survey in Egypt revealed that 63.4% of Egyptian households that use the ADSL service, share their ADSL connection with neighbors. A massive 81.9% of households that use shared ADSL lines share them with more than three neighboring households.” Jawad J. Abbassi, Founder and General Manager of Arab Advisors Group noted. “Based on the survey results, the average number of households sharing one ADSL connection is 2.98. Multiplying the reported number of lines by this figure yields an estimate for households with ADSL connections in Egypt of 956,000 households by end of 2007, much higher than the number of accounts. While ADSL sharing is illegal in many countries and does negatively affect quality, the Arab Advisors Group believes that the practice is widespread in the Arab World. The silver lining is that more households are connected to broadband Internet services which would positively affect adoption of Internet-based services such as e-commerce, multimedia, user generated content and e-government services.” Mr. Abbassi added.