imported 2024-03-17 17:43:07
Hassan Kabbani, CEO of Zain KSA
The Saudi telecom market is a very dynamic market. Having worked myself in various countries throughout the region, I know that the Saudi market is also the most important market in the Middle East region.
Nedal Yusuf Alobidan, HR Operations Director at Zain Saudi Arabia
We are very keen to develop and maintain a high percentage of saudization. This is the general direction of Saudi Arabia and of Zain. The most important asset that Zain has is its people.
Autonomous Kurdistan has found itself with a comparative advantage in the telecoms department, with defacto faster Internet connections and consistent mobile service compared to the rest of federal Iraq.
In 2013 two major contracts for the modernization of the two mobile operators are signed. For Libyana the estimated costs of the upgrade is LYD 230-250 million and approximately the same amount for Almadar, the second largest mobile operator in Libya. Eng. Usama Siala, Minister of Communications and Informatics of Libya, explains the telecom investment road-map for 2013-2014.
Korek is a big player in Iraq now, “we have nationwide coverage. We increased our market share by 4 percent in less than a year: we moved from 11 to 15.7 percent.”
Newroz Telecom is building a high-speed broadband ADSL network in Erbil and Dohuk and laying more than 1,500 kilometers of fiber-optic cable, according to the Newroz Telecom website.
Newroz group is a regional telecom group. When Newroz Telecom began their operation in 2005 the internet penetration rate was almost zero. Newroz Telecom was the first company to interconnect Iraq around the world and replace the old connections. Following the recent negative experience in Iraq, Newroz Telecom is now focusing on Kurdistan only. The company plans to deploy 4G (LTE) all over the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Imagine it is 2005 and the Internet penetration rate of Kurdistan (KRG) is near to zero, the only telecom was the government monopoly entity with aging exchanges and no fiber optics.
Two years ago an ISP or a data company had always had a disadvantage in comparison to a 2G mobile company, as the latter always had an upper hand because the voice application was more popular.
The Internet penetration rate in Iraqi Kurdistan is a subject to controversy. Kawa A. Junad, CEO of Newroz Telecom, the largest and leading Internet provider in Kurdistan, believes that the penetration rate is around 7% in Kurdistan and 1% in the greater Iraq.
