Jordan retains its status as the Arab World's most competitive cellular market while Iraq jumps to the second place

Meanwhile on the opposite extreme, Qatar -the last cellular monopoly market in the Arab World- naturally came last in the index.

The Arab Advisors Group has devised the Cellular Competition Intensity Index in order to rate and properly assess the intensity level of competition in the Arab World's cellular markets. The index takes into account the number of operators, packages, and services available in each of the 19 countries covered by the Arab Advisors Group in this report, with each category assigned a certain weight according to its importance as an indicator of competitive behavior. The categories include the following: Number of licensed and expected operators; number of working operators; market share of largest operator; number of current prepaid plans; number of current postpaid plans; availability of corporate offers; availability of 3G services; availability of operational ILD (International Long Distance) competition.

A new report, "Competition Levels in Arab Cellular Markets" was released to the Arab Advisors Group's Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on June 7, 2007. This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group. The 13-page report ranks the Arab World countries according to their cellular competition intensity level, based on a methodological approach.

The Cellular Competition Intensity Index results for 2007 revealed that Jordan tops the score -as the most competitive Arab market- with an 78.1% mark followed by Iraq (75.8%), Algeria (69.0%), Palestine (67.8%), Saudi Arabia (67.3%), Egypt (60.0%), Morocco (56.5%), Sudan (56.3%), Mauritania (53.4%), Bahrain (51.8%), Yemen (47.8%), UAE (45.9%), Tunisia (45.6%), Kuwait (40.7%), Lebanon (35.1%), Syria (34.3%), Libya (30.9%), Oman (28.7%) and finally Qatar at 26.1%.

"According to Arab Advisors Group's cellular competition intensity index, Jordan still holds its first rank position with a cellular competition intensity Index score of 78.1%. In addition to hosting 4 fully licensed and operational operators, Jordan has the third highest number of prepaid plans, after Algeria and Egypt, in addition to a large variety of postpaid plans." Andrawes Snobar, a Senior Research Analyst at Arab Advisors Group wrote in the report. "Iraq's performance, meanwhile, was excellent in the cellular competition intensity index, ranking second with a score of 75.8%. Qatar stood at the nineteenth and last rank in the index. Qatar has only one licensed working operator, with an anticipated second license in 2007. Qatari subscribers have a choice of only one prepaid plan and one postpaid plan."