Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Arab world - Egypt has the lowest per minute charges for mobile, Morocco the highest, Jordan the most tax

[cellular news] Morocco has the highest average cost of prepaid and postpaid cellular minutes in the Arab World, according to a new report from Arab Advisors Group. Egypt offer the lowest average cellular minute costs for prepaid and postpaid. 12 of the 19 covered markets impose taxes on cellular services, these are: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. Jordan boasts the highest sales tax rates on cellular services in the region followed by Tunisia and Morocco.

New research and analysis from the Arab Advisors Group reveal that Morocco has the highest postpaid average minute cost in the region followed by Mauritania. As for the prepaid average minute rates, Morocco also has the highest average rate followed by Lebanon. Egypt lies on the other extreme, having the region's lowest average prepaid and postpaid minute rates. The analysis includes taxes collected by governments on airtime and cellular use.

"Twelve Arab countries impose taxes on cellular services charged to the end users. These are the governments of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. Such taxes might be referred to as sales tax, telecommunication tax, value added tax, or consumption tax. All rates mentioned in this report include all applicable taxes (representing the total costs that end users' bear). The governments of the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries and Libya do not impose taxes on consumers' use of cellular services." Mrs. Faten Bader, Arab Advisors Group senior research analyst commented. "Enhanced competition in the Arab cellular markets has caused operators to adopt per- second billing or fractions of a minute. As of March 2010, an array of 15 different billing methods was in use by 52 cellular operators in the 19 covered Arab countries." Ms. Zeena Al Borgan, Arab Advisors Group senior research analyst added.

In calculating the average cellular rates, the Arab Advisors Group relied on the simple average for the packages' rates. The average peak and off-peak minute rates in the report include the tariffs for on-net and off-net traffic.

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