Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Arab World - telecommunications sector in the Middle East witnessed a remarkable 24 percent growth of participants annually during the last 15 years

[kuwait times] The third workshop for the Salem Al-Ali Award Forum was held on Sunday night under the title 'Telecommunications in Kuwait and the Arab World: Reality and ambitions.' The workshop was hosted by Saad Al-Barrak, CEO and managing Director of Zain in Saudi Arabia (KSA). The forum's opening speech, made by IT Award Forum Coordinator Ahmed Idriss Al-Dossari, started with a biography of Al-Barrak's career. He also spoke about Al-Barrak's prizes and activities in the field of telecommunications in Kuwait w
hile he worked as a Zain Kuwait CEO.

Al-Barrak thanked the forum and Sheikh Salem Al-Ali for his unlimited support, for the award and for all those that serve the development goals of Kuwait and the Arab World. He spoke about the current situation of telecommunications in Kuwait, in the Middle East and its future. He pointed out that the telecommunications sector in the Middle East witnessed a remarkable 24 percent growth of participants annually during the last 15 years, especially in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The gross revenues witnessed in the Middle East, an increase of 15 percent annually, is the highest in the world. Focusing on Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries, Al-Barrak mentioned that the average revenue of every user in the region is the highest in the Middle East. He said that it is expected that the number of cell phone users will reach 7.2 billion in 2015, 324 million of which will be in the Middle East.

He pointed out that the telecommunications sector has reached a saturation point and that it is now time for legislative authorities to protect consumers and lead competition between different telecommunication companies. He added that competition amongst telecommunications companies is important for offering additional services for consumers.

Mideast telecom sector witnessed 24pc growth in last 15 years

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