| COUNTRY PERSPECTIVES
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JORDAN |
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Telecom & internet |
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Reform in telecommunications and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in Jordan has been actively pursued over the past few years and it will continue to drive growth in the ICT services sector. The 2004-2007 National Strategic Plan for ICT and postal sectors provides the basis for introduction in 2005 of full liberalisation of fixed telephony... |
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Telecom & internet |
Reform in telecommunications and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in Jordan has been actively pursued over the past few years and it will continue to drive growth in the ICT services sector. The 2004-2007 National Strategic Plan for ICT and postal sectors provides the basis for introduction in 2005 of full liberalisation of fixed telephony, a fourth mobile phone operator, and the successful privatisation of Jordan Telecom. These developments create huge business and investment opportunities to meet the increasing demands of the network.
Law n°13 of 1995 concerning telecommunications opened up the sector as a whole (except for fixed telephony), providing for the creation of two mobile phone networks, two public phone companies, and ten internet providers.
An independent regulatory authority, the “Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC)”, has been set up. It monitors operators’ activities, the network, and awards new licences. The government continues to liberalise telecommunications, following opening of the fixed telephony market on 1 January 2005, and it grants significant tax incentives in order to encourage investment in ICT.
In addition to infrastructure (automatic commutation and broadband networks), several public initiatives were launched, such as REACH (a government-business partnership) and the national strategy to make Jordan a leader in export of ICT goods and services. This program has received support from newly-launched start-up incubators, an ambitious e-administration initiative, the promotion of electronic trade, the “Broadband Learning and Educational Network project” linking eight public universities, 3200 public schools, 23 community colleges and 75 knowledge stations.
The national operator Jordan Telecom Company (JTC) held a monopoly on fixed telephony until December 2004, when the government sold 58.5 percent of its holdings in Jordan Telecom Company to the Joint Investment Telecommunications Consortium (JITCO), 88 percent of which is held by France Telecom and 12 percent by the Arab Bank Ltd. Three subsidiary companies have been set up by France Telecom: MobileCom for cellular telephony, Wanadoo as internet provider, and E.dimension for online services. The government's remaining shares, amounting to 41.5 percent of JTC stock, will be sold by the end of 2006.
The Jordanian mobile telephony market is the most competitive in the Middle East, with a competitiveness index of 84 percent as of end 2004, 17 percent more than in 2003. Nearly 1.6 million subscribers were registered in 2004, a penetration rate of 29 percent. Fastlink, originally a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding, was the first mobile operator in Jordan (1995). Orascom sold its holdings to the Kuwaiti Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) in 2003 for US$ 550 million. Today four operators share the market: Jordan Mobile Telephones Services – Fastlink, Mobile Petra Jordanian Telecommunications Company – MobileCom, Xpress, and Mobile Umniah Company, which inaugurated its GSM network in June 2005.
Market potential for mobile telephony is estimated at more than 2 million users, providing that new investments are made and new products and services introduced.
As for internet, there are only eight providers (Access-me, Wanadoo, Te-Dated, Next, Batelco Jordan, Cyberia, Link and Middle East Communications) holding the 23 licences originally granted by the government, due to low growth in the sector. Indeed, the number of subscribers came to only 105,000 as of the end of 2004 (compared to 85,000 in 2003), a penetration rate of 2 percent in spite of 23.5 percent higher volume. This low market penetration is an opportunity for new investors to offer internet services through wire and wireless networks. The market has tended to stagnate because of the weak percentage of household data processing equipment, i.e. only 30.8 percent of households have a computer, and only 10.6 percent have an internet connection. To mitigate this problem, a free subscription service “Free Internet” has been made available by TE-DATA and NEXT since the beginning of 2005. |
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