Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait are the Arab world's highest adopters of telecommunication services

During the conference, Etisalat's E-Vision also announced that it has reached over 350,000 homes in the major cities of the UAE such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Al Ain by its pay TV services.

Arab Advisors Group Third Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference concluded successfully on Wednesday June 7th, with over 330 regional and local key players representing the Middle East's media and telecom sectors participating in the two-days conference. During the two-day conference participants discussed means of cooperation and the massive opportunities that the convergence between media and telecom will create to businesses and users.

'The massive development which we are witnessing today in the telecom and media sectors on a regional level is a proof that we are on the right track, and able to deliver services matching global levels.'

Said Jawad Abbasi, General Manager of Arab Advisors Group.

The Arab Advisors Group unveiled the results of new research in the conference including the annual results of the Total Country Connectivity Measure (TCCM). The Arab Advisors Group calculates the TCCM by adding the household mainlines penetration, GSM penetration, and Internet users penetration rates in each country. The 2005 TCCM rankings show that Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait have maintained their leading rankings in the score. Qatar's TCCM score stood at 234% followed by Bahrain (231%), UAE (212%), Kuwait (203%), Saudi Arabia (145%), Oman (113%), Lebanon (112%), Jordan (111%), Tunisia (98%), Syria (89%), Algeria (84%), Egypt (84%), Palestine (76%), Morocco (60%), Yemen (35%) and finally Sudan (20%). The TCCM shows the extent of connectivity of individuals in a certain country whether via fixed lines, GSM lines and/or Internet. Off course, there will be an overlap since many individuals will be using these three communications technologies at the same time. However, the measure still yields an accurate and informative picture on the level of ICT services penetration in each country: For example, if a country has a TCCM measure of 60%, this means that at least 40% of the population are not users of any of the three services constituting the measure. While a TCCM score of more than 100% is very positive, it nonetheless, does not mean that all the population uses the services due to overlap of usage.

During the conference, Mr. Humaid Rashid Sahoo, CEO of Emirates Cable TV & Multimedia (E-Vision) announced that the company -which is owned by UAE's Etisalat- has connected over 350,000 homes in the major cities of the UAE such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Al Ain via Hybrid Fibre Coaxial Cable and Broadband Wireless access Service Networks. This translates into a healthy reach of 35%. Mr. Sahoo also indicated that E-Vision is the sole regional source to offer content from all the major Pay TV providers (Orbit, Showtime, FirstNet, Pehla, Al Awael, TFC Cable and others).

Regional and local operators joined forces to support the Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference and sponsored the major regional media and telecom conference. The main conference sponsor was UAE's Etisalat. Etsialat's sponsorship comes as the operator launched a new corporate identity and strategy in May 2006 that reflects its ambitions to attain a leading position amongst telecom operators on the global level.

The conference was also sponsored by Jawwal, Batelco Jordan, Fastlink, TE-Data, Jordan Telecom, Kalam, ROAMWARE. Spot On PR is the conference PR Partner. Conference partners also include Microsoft Eastern Mediterranean, Al Bawaba, menafn.com, Maktoob.com, CommsMEA and Globitel. The Information Technology Association of Jordan (int@j) is also supporting the conference.