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ALGERIA |
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Telecom & Internet |
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The Government has been carrying out a comprehensive reform in the telecommunications and postal sector since 2000 and a new legal and regulatory framework for a multi-operator telecommunications system has now been established. The Government published a telecommunications strategy in May 2000 and subsequently (in August 2000) enacted a new postal and telecommunications law creating the Regulation Authority for Postal Services and Telecommunications, the national fixed telephony operation Algeria Telecom, Algeria Telecom Mobile that has now become Mobilis, and the postal operator Algeria Post. |
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Algeria |
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Telecom & Internet |
The Government's strategy in this area is to gradually liberalise all telecommunications and postal service market segments. According to the World Bank, Algeria’s telecommunications market has become the most liberalised market in the MENA region, with growing competition leading to significant investment, the sale of several cellular telephone licences, VSAT, GMPCS and fixed telephone licences. This should lead to the opening of capital in the state owned Algeria Telecom and its subsidiary companies in 2006.
The first private mobile telecommunications operator, Orascom Telecom Algeria (commercial name “Djezzy”) from Egypt started business in 2001 and currently services 5 million subscribers, followed by the Saudi Wataniya Telecom Algeria “Nedjma” (500,000 subscribers) in 2004. Two VSAT licences were also awarded in 2004 to Djezzy and a consortium of Monaco’s Divona Telecom and Algeria’s Kpoint Com. A fixed telephony licence was also granted in April 2005 to Orascom Telecom Holding in partnership with Telecom Egypt.
Algeria Telecom, with turnover of DZ 130 billion (approximately US$ 1.885 billion) in 2005, has defined new objectives targeting capacity of almost 7 million fixed lines, 3 million ADSL subscribers and 6 million mobile subscribers by 2008. It plans to invest some US$ 2.5 billion by 2010.
Over 70 percent of the two million fixed telephone subscribers are administrations, public utilities and trade and services companies, while the household connection rate remains very low at less than 30 percent.
The French equipment supplier Alcatel has signed a contract for deployment of a cellular network with Orascom, representing more than 50 percent of infrastructure, the rest of equipment being provided by the German company Siemens. Ericsson holds a majority share in the infrastructure of the Mobilis GSM network. Chinese suppliers like Huawei and ZTE are very active, mainly on the telegraphic telephony market, administration PABXs, and mobile and fixed telephony. The French ISP Wanadoo (a subsidiary of France Telecom) has signed a technical assistance contract with EEPAD, the leading internet service provider.
The internet, operational since 1997, is serviced by about fifteen Internet Service Providers (ISP) for 700,000 users. |
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