Connectivity index shows UAE leads regional growth trend

The report stated that the UAE's communications provider, Etisalat, is ahead of all Arab operators in terms of both International voice circuit capacity and Internet bandwidth capacity. Saudi Arabia and Egypt, major regional Internet markets, follow closely with each country having 16% of the total Internet capacity in the analyzed countries; Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Qatar, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.

"The ongoing liberalization of the telecom market in the region will underline the importance of new technologies and services, including a new generation of rich content based services that will undoubtedly drive capacity utilization and demand up in the Arab World." Said Jawad Abbassi, founder and president of Arab Advisors Group. "The need for telecom operators to focus on Content, interactivity and the required delivery channels is underlined by the fact that enhanced competition will drive down traditional voice revenues. Success in the market will increasingly depend service differentiation where content and value added services are key"

On the Internet front, the Arab countries examined have a total of 9,329 Mbps (9.3 Gbps) of Internet capacity. Again, the UAE's Etisalat was the regional leader, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Still at relatively low levels of usage per capita, the Arab World's connectivity is, however, growing fast.

"The future of the telecom market in the Arab World carries more adoption of high speed broadband Internet, the new services which are expected to launch during in the coming period like double play and triple play -and the new competitive landscape in quite a few of the Arab markets- will lead into massive reduction on rates thus further raising the rates of internet adoption." Added Abbassi. "This is to be a major focus for the communications and media industry attendees at the second Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference."

Building on the success of the Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference held last year, Jordan will be hosting the second Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference 2005, on 11-12 June 2005 to be held Under the Patronage of H.E Nadia Al-Saeed, Minister of Information and Communications Technology. The two day conference organized by the Arab Advisors Group, will see the participation of local and regional telecom and media leaders. Over 300 representatives will share their expertise, success stories, case studies and discuss the opportunities which the convergence of those vital sector will create. This year the Conference will focus on "Content, Interactivity and Delivery Channels".

During the two days conference various issues will be discussed through case studies and presentations. On the 11th June, participants will be discussing the following issues: An overview of the Arab telecom and media markets, Entering competitive cellular market: Content and VAS as a complete advantage, Triple Play fixed networks: Silver bullet for revival of fixed services?, Cellular Allure serving the young Arab mobile user, The promise of broadband Internet, Rich content services a differentiator for competitive operators, News and entertainment delivery via the mobile, TV Radio and Media operators' Strategies to capitalize on enhanced Telecom's usage amongst its target market, liberalization policies effects on market development. The speakers of the second day will shed the light on the following topics; Digital Terrestrial TV prospects in the region, Business -focused VAS in Cellular Networks, The future shape of fixed service operators in the region, The Arab SAT TV Industry, Establishing an Arab SAT TV station, Mobile portable handset features; driving content or driven by content? Liberalizing the media markets, E-commerce and online Internet advertising in the Arab world, Mobile Content and Telecom companies strategies for enhancing content.

The conference has already gained the support of key telecom players in the region, not only by speaking at the event, but extended their support to become sponsors for this major regional conference. The main conference sponsor is Jordan's latest GSM operator, Umniah mobile company. The conference is also sponsored by Jawwal, the GSM network of Palestine, Xpress, Jordan's iDEN operator, Batelco Jordan, a leading communications provider in Jordan, Motorola, the world-class global communications leader and Jordan Telecom, Jordan's leading telecommunications solution provider. On the sidelines of the conference an exhibition will be held, where the sponsors and other participants will showcase their latest products and services, AMEInfo, Al Bawaba, TE Data, Maktoob.com and MENA FN will be showcasing their products and services.

"In a bid to maximize the benefit of the conference and as a part of the vision of Arab Advisors Group to contribute in building and growing the Arab World's information economy, we decided to make the conference free to all telecom operators and TV and radio broadcasters. We invite all the members of the telecom and media sectors to attend this conference in order to pave the path and outline the roadmap for the convergence of telecom and media for the benefit of all stakeholders." Said Abbassi.