Jun 21, 2012
AMMAN -- As Third Generation (3G) mobile Internet services become more widespread and as more Jordanians access the Internet at higher speeds, experts expect the viewing and sharing of videos online to increase.
"With the launch of the third 3G network in Jordan this week, Internet users in Jordan have access to higher speeds and more capacities and this is expected to lead to more video use in the Kingdom," Jawad Abbassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisers Group, said in a phone interview this week.
Umniah launched its 3G network last Sunday, becoming the third provider to offer the service after Orange Jordan in 2010 and Zain Jordan in 2011.
Abbassi pointed out that the Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions in the world in terms of data use and especially video.
Abed Shamlawi, CEO of the ICT Association of Jordan, int@j, agreed.
"The more people are connected to the Internet, the more traffic there will be, especially video, which is one of the main tools of communication nowadays," he said.
The experts also agreed that an increasing number of users of social networking sites in Jordan will also encourage more downloads and uploads of videos.
"Video is the next big wave of communication across the world," Marthin De Beer, senior vice president, Video and Collaboration Group, told The Jordan Times during Cisco Live 2012, held recently in San Diego, California.
"Video will be the majority of Internet traffic worldwide in two years," De Beer said, attributing this trend to the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections.
By 2016, 1.2 million video minutes ? the equivalent of 833 days or over two years ? will travel the Internet every second, Cisco Systems, Inc.'s Visual Networking Index Forecast indicated.
There will be 1.5 billion Internet video users by 2016, up from 792 million in 2011, the Cisco report said.
The forecast indicated that by 2016, there will be nearly 18.9 billion network connections? almost 2.5 connections for each person on Earth.
© Jordan Times 2012
