Multimedia services over GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) network to experience a boom in the Middle East

According to industry expert and CEO of Info2cell.com, the leading wireless application service provider and multimedia service integrator in the Middle East, Bashar Dahabra, the multimedia services market is geared for exceptional growth in the next few years, with the increased availability of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) enabled devices and the recent introduction of multimedia messaging services (MMS) in the UAE and other parts of the Middle East. This growth is complemented by service providers competing to offer better and more innovative content through the GPRS network.

Dahabra delivered a paper on 'Value Added Services over GPRS networks' at the eighth international 'GSM in the Middle East & Gulf' conference and exhibition, which was held on October 7 and 8, 2003 in Dubai, UAE.

A report from the EMC World Cellular Database shows that since the first commercial launch of GPRS, in June 2000, a total of 106 systems in 46 countries had been launched by the end of April 2002. While uptake for GPRS based applications has been slow, with a little over two million regular users of GPRS, that is, less than than 1% of the 666 million GSM subscribers worldwide, the situation is geared to change with operators resorting to innovative messaging services and consumer driven applications.

Info2cell.com which is wholly owned by Acotel Group, has recently introduced enhanced services to GPRS subscribers in the Middle East. 'The mobile phone has emerged as an ideal vehicle for delivery of information, and we have realized the need to tap the potential for raising revenues by introducing new methods of relaying information and entertainment over the mobile device. Last year during the World Cup, we offered subscribers the latest scores of the matches through short message service (SMS). However the demand for more realistic and enriched content through the introduction of MMS, has prompted Info2cell.com to offer range of Mass Market Content services that can easily be downloaded to mobile terminals or PDAs as they are extremely light, that is, not more than 15 kb', said Bashar Dahabra, CEO and Founder of info2cell.com.

Through Acotel's digital sequence, Info2cell can deliver soccer match relays to subscribers on their cell phone or PDAs. All the action taking place on the soccer field is delivered live as it happens in a digital sequence that appears on the mobile's display. Depending on the mobile terminal, users can view different grades of definition and colour. Info2cell.com also offers dynamic MMS message like breaking news, greeting cards, movie updates, mshots or cartoons, in English or Arabic, over the GPRS network.

'We are confident that these new services will be well received by the Middle East market. We have extensive experience in creating wireless content solutions in the region based on successful application in the European markets, which we tailor to the specific needs of the region. The new emerging markets in the region are clamouring for not just traditional mobile services, but also advanced features such as WAP and MMS, and Info2cell.com has devised strategies to tap these markets and bring to them industry leading solutions,' added Dahabra.

Other favourable indicators for growth include the fact that the market for mobile phones and PDAs is multiplying in the Middle East, as proven by recent research by Dubai-based Madar Research Group which indicates that the number of mobile phone users in the region marginally outnumbers fixed land-line subscribers. The report states that there were more than 24 million mobile phone subscribers in the Arab world, at the end of 2002 and the growth rate for the whole year was 52 per cent.

Info2cell.com's WASP (Wireless Application Service Provider) platform in DIC (Dubai Internet City) provides potential access to 7 million mobile phone users through a data connection with nine mobile operators in Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Syria and Egypt.