Iraq's telecom market joins the regional pioneers as it awaits full effective liberalization in 2007

On September 6, 2006, the Iraqi Communications & Media Commission (CMC) announced the successful conclusion of its fixed licenses tender. Hitherto, the state-owned Iraqi Telecommunications and Posts Company (ITPC) was the sole provider of telephone and postal services in Iraq. The CMC awarded licenses for the provision of local telecommunications services through the deployment of wireless local loop (WLL) technologies. The new operators are expected to launch their services during 2007.

On the cellular front, there are currently three national operators and two provincial operators (in the Kurdistan region). The CMC tender for long-term licenses, to provide mobile telecommunications services in Iraq, has experienced delays. The delays came mainly as a result of the deteriorating political and security situation in the country, which precluded the government from tendering the permanent cellular licenses in the country.

A new report, "Iraq Communications Projections Report" was released to the Arab Advisors Group's Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on February 13, 2007. The 58-page report, which has 58 detailed exhibits, provides a detailed analysis of the Iraqi fixed and cellular markets and profiles the major players in the country. The report includes 5-year historical and 5-year projections on fixed uptake and cellular uptake, revenues and CAPEX. The report provides, moreover, a detailed and comprehensive picture on the fixed and cellular markets' strategies and regulations. Please contact the Arab Advisors Group to get a copy of the reports Table of Contents.

Any investment in this report will count towards an annual Strategic Research Service subscription should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report.

The investment can also count towards attending Arab Advisors' fourth annual Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference on June 4 & 5 2007 at the Four Seasons in Amman.

"By January 2006, the number of fixed lines amounted to around 1.2 million lines, with a penetration rate of 4.4%" Mr. Ahmad Al-Assad, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst wrote in the report. "The bulk of fixed lines subscribers are based in Iraq's Capital: Baghdad, which has close to 40% of the total lines in the country". In regards to the cellular market, Mr. Al-Assad noted that "The total number of subscribers in Iraq stands at around 8.7 million subscribers, by Q3 2006, when adding around 1.2 million subscribers from the two regional mobile operators: Korek Telecom and SanaTel. Consequently, on September 30, 2006, the cellular penetration rate in Iraq stood at around 31.4%."