The percentage of Jordanian households connected to ADSL is 11.7% of total households

Retail e-commerce in Jordan reached an estimated $181m the 12 months between November 2007 and November 2008.

Arab Advisors' online survey revealed that of the respondents who have an ADSL subscription at home, 13.3% share it with neighbors. 28% of those sharing share the ADSL connection with two more households, 22.7% with three additional households and 29.3% with one additional household.

The survey also revealed that 20.5% of Internet users in Jordan are e-commerce users. The Arab Advisors Group estimates the number of Jordan Internet users who use e-commerce to be more than 198,000 which is around 3.42% of the total population in Jordan, spending $181.2m in e commerce transactions in the past 12 months.

A new major survey of the Internet users in Jordan was concluded by the Arab Advisors Group on November 8th 2008. The survey report, Jordan Internet Users and E-commerce Survey 2008 was released on November 30 2008 and provides the results of a major comprehensive online survey of Internet users in Jordan. The survey covered the Internet usage, e commerce, cellular and Pay TV usage and habits of the online community in Jordan. The survey's online field work was conducted between October 12th and November 5th 2008. The report "Jordan Internet Users and E-commerce Survey 2008 " has 93 pages and 108 exhibits. Please contact us to get a copy of the survey questions and the report's table of contents. The Arab Advisors Group now avails a secure online payment option for purchasing its reports.

Respondents were randomly targeted by receiving an email shot in their inbox to ask them to fill the survey in cooperation with major online players in Jordan. The survey results encompass answers from 931 respondents that passed rigorous quality control checks. Quality control was conducted by Arab Advisors Group's team. The survey was conducted on the general Internet population that is above 18 years of age. The online survey yields a confidence level of 99% with a margin of error of less than 4%.

According to official figures from the Jordan Telecom Group, Jordan had 119,700 ADSL lines by the end of September 2008. The Arab Advisors Group estimates that 80% of those are residential ADSL lines. Accordingly, residential ADSL lines penetration in Jordan was 1.65%, while ADSL lines' household penetration was 8.97%.

"Due to the practice of ADSL lines sharing by households, the Arab Advisors Group notes that this penetration figure based on ISP ADSL accounts does not accurately represent broadband adoption in Jordan. Based on this trend, the Arab Advisors Group calculated the Effective ADSL Penetration Rate. The effective ADSL penetration rate accounts for ADSL connections shared between households, by dividing the number of actual households with access to an ADSL connection (shared or direct and not just ADSL accounts) by the population, or households to give the households ADSL penetration."

Ms. Faten Bader, Arab Advisors Senior analyst noted.

"Based on the survey we estimate the number of households with ADSL connections in Jordan to be 125,000 households by end of Q3 2008. This yields an effective ADSL penetration rate of 2.15% and a households' ADSL penetration rate of 11.71%" Ms. Bader added.

The survey also revealed that WiMAX operators had around 8.3% share of residential broadband Internet connectivity in the country. Commenting on this finding, Jawad J. Abbassi Arab Advisors Founder and General Manager, said: "Clearly, WiMAX services -a year after their launch in Jordan- have gained good traction. The sales and marketing efforts of the two WiMAX operators, as well as the enhanced market awareness for broadband Internet in general, are factors in this growth. With the recent ADSL price drops -due to bit stream offers by Orange in Jordan- the Arab Advisors Group expects healthy competition between the various broadband access technologies in Jordan. Price drops, bundles and promotions will likely increase in 2009 and beyond. In a market where the cellular penetration is 91% and some 50% of households do not have a fixed phone line, WiMAX operators will continue to underline that -unlike ADSL- their broadband offer does not need a fixed phone line in addition to the service portability (nomadic service that is unrestricted by location)."

The Arab Advisors Group's team of analysts in the region has produced over 1,300 reports on the Arab World's communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group's (www.arabadvisors.com) Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom). To date, Arab Advisors Group has served over 500 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients.