The UAE leads the Arab World in International connectivity measures. Underlining its status as a major transit hub for voice and Internet traffic, UAE’s Etisalat is ahead of all Arab operators in terms of International voice circuits capacity and Internet bandwidth capacity. Saudi Arabia and Egypt, major Internet markets by all means, follow closely with each country having 16% of the total Internet capacity in the analyzed countries.
The transformation phase that Arab communication markets are witnessing promises to increase the demand for international connectivity in the short to medium timeframes. At present, most of Arab International Long Distance (ILD) communications markets are monopoly (de facto or de jure) markets (except for Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco), however liberalization plans are in advanced stages in many of the region’s countries. Bahrain, for example, liberalized its Telecom market in 2004, where fixed licenses (including International services) are expected to be granted by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority during 2005. Jordan also began its market’s liberalization process at the beginning of this year, up until March 16th, two complete individual license applications, which allows setting up an ILD gateway, were submitted to the Telecommunication Regulatory authority, these applications are currently in due process. Egypt, also, is expected to liberalize its fixed market in 2006, after Telecom Egypt’s monopoly license expires by end of 2005. And Saudi Arabia’s two new data licensees both have international gateway rights.
These liberalization plans, and others that might not have such clear timelines, will undoubtedly lead to more bandwidth requirements (as new operators setup shop), and lower, cost-based rates once full competition is achieved. Tariff rebalancing, an essential prerequisite for liberalization, will result in reduced international service rates and will heighten demand for the service. High demand, especially with the increased uptake of high speed broadband Internet, will push operators onto obtaining greater international bandwidths from global operators such as FLAG and SEA-ME-WE.
A new report, “International Connectivity in the Arab World” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecom Strategic Research Service subscribers on March 31, 2005. The 48-pages report, which has 30 detailed exhibits, provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the prevailing international connectivity (voice and data) conditions in the 14 Arab countries of UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Tunisia, Syria, Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Lebanon.
“On the voice circuits front, Arab Advisors analysis shows that the total number of international voice circuits for the twelve examined countries of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Qatar, Tunisia and UAE stood at more than 140,000 circuits by end of 2004. The UAE has the largest share at over 28% of the total.” Ms. Muna Sunna, Arab Advisors Research Analyst and the author of the report commented. “Combining the numbers of all countries examined, the ratio of International voice circuits to the total number of mainlines in all countries, resulted in a relatively low value of 0.65%. The Arab Advisors Group expects that international voice market liberalization (already underway in quite a few Arab markets like Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco and Algeria, will substantially alter this ratio upwards as new providers enter and enhance the supply of international voice circuits.” Ms. Sunna added.
On the Internet front, the Arab countries examined have a total of 9,329 Mbps (9.3 Gbps) of Internet Capacity. Again, UAE’s Etisalat was the regional leader, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
