| 14 Jun 2006 |
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UAE among region's highest adopters of telecom services
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DUBAI -- Arab Advisors Group Third Annual Media and Telecommunications Convergence Conference concluded successfully on Wednesday June 7, 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 per cent followed by Bahrain (231 per cent), UAE (212 per cent), Kuwait (203 per cent), Saudi Arabia (145 per cent), Oman (113 per cent), Lebanon (112 per cent), Jordan (111 per cent), Tunisia (98 per cent), Syria (89 per cent), Algeria (84 per cent), Egypt (84 per cent), Palestine (76 per cent), Morocco (60 per cent), Yemen (35 per cent) and finally Sudan (20 per cent).
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 per cent, this means that at least 40 per cent of the population are not users of any of the three services constituting the measure. While a TCCM score of more than 100 per cent is very positive, it nonetheless, does not mean that all the population uses the services due to overlap of usage.
During the conference, 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 per cent. Sahoo also indicated that E-Vision is the sole regional source to offer content from all the major Pay TV providers (Orbit, ShowtimeShowtime
, FirstNet, Pehla, Al Awael, TFC Cable and others).
BY STAFF REPORTER
© Khaleej Times 2006
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